7 Major Coronavirus Developments — Will Rationing Hit RI Hospitals — Tuesday, March 31, 2020
GoLocalProv News Team
7 Major Coronavirus Developments — Will Rationing Hit RI Hospitals — Tuesday, March 31, 2020
"NYU Langone Health, one of the nation’s top academic medical centers, told emergency-room doctors that they have 'sole discretion' to place patients on ventilators and institutional backing to 'withhold futile intubations,'” reports the Wall Street Journal.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTNew York is America's canary in the coalmine. What is being experienced in New York could be the reality in Rhode Island and other areas of the country in just weeks.
Rhode Island is the second-most densely populated state to only New Jersey -- and the Ocean State's fate is unknown as the state's testing system has been so slow to gear up.
Now, a month after the first case was reported in Rhode Island, is the testing only beginning to be expanded.
WATCH: Former RI Director of Health Dr. Michael Fine on GoLocal LIVE at 12 PM on Monday
According to the report in WSJ, "A March 28 email from Robert Femia, who heads the New York health center’s department of emergency medicine, underscored the life-or-death decisions placed on the shoulders of bedside physicians as they treat increasing numbers of coronavirus patients with a limited supply of ventilators."
“'For those patients who you feel intubation will not change their ultimate clinical outcome (for example cardiac arrests, some chronic disease patients at end of life, etc) you will have support in your decision making at the department and institutional level to withhold futile intubations,' he wrote, referring to the tubes attached to ventilators that are inserted in the mouths of patients and sit above the lungs."
Presently, Rhode Island has 408 cases and 41 hospitalized.
READ BELOW 7 Major Coronavirus Developments for Tuesday, March 31, 2020
7 Major Coronavirus Developments — Tuesday — March 31, 2020
U.S. Leaders Now Plan for 200,000 Deaths
While Dr. Anthony has been articulating that U.S. deaths could hit upwards of 100,000 deaths or more for weeks, the White House has now taken on the same language.
President Donald Trump changed course on Monday. “The economy is No. 2 on my list,” he said. “First, I want to save a lot of lives.”
Numbers
408 Cases in Rhode Island
5752 Cases in Massachusetts
4 Deaths in RI
56 Deaths in Massachusetts
164,359 Cases in the United States
3,173 Deaths in the United States
792,509 Global Cases
37,947 Global Deaths
166,918 Global Recoveries
RI Testing -- 3 Locations By Appointment Only
The testing in Rhode Island has been expanded with locations at URI, CCRI and RIC.
Testing is ONLY by the referral of a physician and an appointment set by the Rhode Island Department of Health.
Watch Governor Raimondo and officials explain the development here -- who said anyone who shows up without an appointment will be turned away.
No Let Up in Italy
Italian coronavirus cases have exceeded one-hundred thousand -- now, totaling 101,991.
The number of deaths tied to the virus is now 11,660.
The Italian mortality rate is a horrifying 11.4%.
Retailers Furloughing Hundreds of Thousands
Macy’s Inc., Gap Inc., and other retailers will furlough hundreds of thousands of employees this week.
In Rhode Island, that means hundreds of employees.
Macy’s employs approximately 125,000 people and the company said the majority will be furloughed but will continue to have access to company health benefits.
Spain's Deadliest Day
Spain recorded 849 coronavirus deaths within 24 hours, marking the deadliest day so far in the country’s outbreak that has now cost at least 8,189 lives.
The deaths are competing with mounting questions about how long a tightening lockdown is sustainable in Spain.
GoLocal Coverage on Tuesday
10 AM Reese Grondin - LIVE from Haiti
12 PM Dr. Michael Fine, Former Director of RIDOH
1 PM Governor Gina Raimondo Press Briefing
