We are 107 days since our first confirmed case of Covid in Connecticut. We are 98 days since our first death. We are 33 days into reopening.
Hospitalizations are down to 138 (the high was (1,972)
We have lost 4,277 Connecticut residents (in 98 days)
This is from an article in late April but still relevant as our numbers in Connecticut’s hospitals drop and we fight to return to “normal infection control practices.” In April we filed OSHA complaints because our members were at risk from a lack of PPE- https://www.thedailybeast.com/osha-complaints-flood-in-from-covid-19-frontline-health-workers
“In another complaint against Backus Hospital in Connecticut, Sherri Dayton, an emergency nurse, wrote that the hospital “is not providing healthcare workers with N95s when coming into close contact with suspected and confirmed COVID patients,” who themselves are not made to wear surgical masks. “The hospital has surgical masks for every patient, but is not requiring patients to wear them in the room,” wrote Dayton. “The hospital also has N95s but is not giving them to employees who are caring for unmasked patients.”
This in response to Danbury Nurses picking up AFT provided PPE this week:
“Interesting that Dawn Martin phoned me to inform me that Danbury Hospital has over a 3 month supply of masks etc. I reassured her that this was for our nurses protection and not an insult to Danbury Hospital. This is a high five to AFT CT and AFT National”.
My response to Danbury Nurses (and all of you)
“Nice.
Can you ask her if that means a 3 month supply of PPE at CDC Conventional Capacity usage rate? (burn rate) And if they say "yes" can you ask why the PPE is not now "one patient/one time" use, like it has always been for infection control prior to the pandemic.”
Can you all ask the same of you’re employers?
Article from the NIH Director about the results of mitigation policies on the spread of the Virus. The results seem to be consistent with what we saw in Connecticut. Early in the pandemic we were seeing a doubling of cases every 2-3 days.
“As difficult as the shutdowns have been, new research shows that without these public health measures, things would have been much, much worse. According to a study published recently in Nature [1], the implementation of containment and mitigation strategies across the globe prevented or delayed about 530 million coronavirus infections across six countries—China, South Korea, Iran, Italy, France, and the United States. Take a moment to absorb that number—530 million. Right now, there are 8.8 million cases documented across the globe.
The result? Early in the pandemic, coronavirus infection rates grew 38 percent each day, on average, across the six countries: translating to a two-day doubling time. Applying all policies at once slowed the daily COVID-19 infection rate by 31 percentage points! Policies having the clearest benefit were business closures and lockdowns, whereas travel restrictions and bans on social gatherings had mixed results. Without more data, the analysis can’t specify why, but the way different countries enacted those policies might be one reason.”
We've rescheduled our career education workshop on legal issues facing nurses and health professionals for members of affiliated healthcare unions that was previously canceled. Plan to join us online next month for what is sure to be an informative course:
WHAT: Healthcare "Legal Issues" Training Workshop
WHEN: Monday, July 27 from 5:00 to 7:00PM. (during the regular scheduled monthly Healthcare Council meeting).
WHERE: Online via Zoom (access info to be provided prior to the workshop).
Issues covered include work-related injuries, how to file a claim for Worker’s Compensation if you contracted COVID-19, and the right to union representation. The presenter is AFT Connecticut legal counsel Eric Chester.
In this ever-changing environment, make sure you know where you stand and what rights you haveto union representation.
More to come, and In solidarity,
Jennifer Benevento
Professional Issues & Development Coordinator, AFT Connecticut
Bill Garrity
Vice President for Healthcare, AFT Connecticut
P.S. Can't make it to the training yourself but know fellow caregivers who would benefit? Forward this message to them so they can plan to join us.
here is some information about the Red Cross’ virtual family assistance center:
Emotional care, grief counseling and other resources for people in need are available through this site.
Thank you to Bill Gerrish of the CT DPH for providing this info.
I’ll close with a cartoon of one of our members that made national press.
Be well,
John
|
No comments:
Post a Comment