Coronavirus updates: U.S. preps for a pandemic as COVID-19 claims 6 lives in Washington state – CBS News, CBS News
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50 m ago
“Increasing our cleanliness”: U.S. nursing homes and schools brace
As coronavirus spreads in the US, places with vulnerable populations, such as nursing homes and schools, are making preparations.
At the Hebrew Home, a nursing facility in the Bronx with about 870 residents, staff plan to have weekly calls with state health officials, and to increase communication with residents .
“It is really incumbent upon us to really be vigilant,” CEO Daniel Reingold told CBS News correspondent David Begnaud. “We are increasing our cleanliness efforts.”
Reingold said the facility does not have a way to test residents for coronavirus, but noted that New York state’s Department of Health had adopted a testing mechanism, meaning residents would not longer need to rely solely on national CDC testing procedures.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo confirmed Monday that the federal government was allowing his state to conduct testing for the virus, saying he “would like to have a goal of 1, 12 tests per day. ”
Schools are also on high alert. One in Little Falls, New Jersey, now disinfects surfaces four times a day.
We have all the preventative measures in place , the hand washing, the cleaning, “Superintendent Tracey Marinelli told CBS News.
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“Hostage in a petri dish”: Fear mounts over outbreak in Seattle area nursing home
Officials in King County, Washington, home to all six of the United States’ coronavirus deaths to date, have said they plan to buy a motel and convert it into modular units to house coronavirus patients in isolation.
King County Public Health Officer Jeff Duchin said they “expect the number of cases will continue to increase in the coming days and weeks. ”
Carmen Gray’s mother Susan Haley is under quarantine at the nursing home outside Seattle where four residents were among the country first coronavirus deaths. She told CBS News correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti that she asked to get her mother tested for the virus, but was told she “did not meet the criteria at this time.”
“They’re being held hostage in a petri dish,” said Gray.
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