Corona Virus Update 9/19

 Sisters and brothers,

We are 193 days since the first confirmed case of Covid 19 in Connecticut.

We are approaching 200,000 dead in the United States. 

4492 have died in Connecticut. 

We have been below 100 statewide hospitalizations in Connecticut since July 3

That’s 78 days under 100 hospitalizations in Connecticut. 

Yet.....

We still do not have enough PPE so that we can return to “Conventional Capacity Strategy”!!!!!

You remember that right?

It’s what we always thought of as “infection control.”

It’s what we would have been disciplined for not following. 

It means not reusing PPE that is meant to be disposable, while caring for multiple patients. 

78 days!

Yesterday’s numbers:

77 hospitalized (from a high of 1,972 and a low of 42)

4,492 Connecticut residents have died. 

Our positivity rate has started creeping up, now just above 1%. 

We have learned a lot. 

We have learned that this is an airborne virus and that we can contain it if we do not allow it to be some airborne. 

That is why masks are so important. 

We also know that Reopening businesses and schools and the continued reuse of PPE is a risk. 

Elsewhere, our courageous teachers and PSRPs are back in school. They are doing the best they can in a far from perfect environment. Many thanks to them. 

At Windham Hospital, Hartford Healthcare is trying to close the Labor & Delivery services for a poor community of color. 

Shame on them.

We are part of a community group opposed to this. Find them on Facebook at “Windham United to Save our Healthcare”

And at Backus Hospital Hartford Healthcare is trying to break the nurses. The nurses are fighting back and have voted to authorize a strike. 

Again, shame on Hartford Healthcare.  

You can find and support the nurses on Facebook and Twitter @Backusnurses. 

Be safe my friends and make sure you register and vote.

John