Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Missouri Hospital Issues Panic Buttons For Covid-Related Attacks On Staff
AP: COVID-Related Attacks Prompt Hospital To Issue Panic Buttons
Nurses and hundreds of other staff members will soon begin wearing panic buttons at a Missouri hospital where assaults on workers tripled after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cox Medical Center Branson is using grant money to add buttons to identification badges worn by up to 400 employees who work in the emergency room and inpatient hospital rooms. Pushing the button will immediately alert hospital security, launching a tracking system that will send help to the endangered worker. The hospital hopes to have the system operational by the end of the year. (Salter, 9/28)
AP: Misinformation Leads To Animosity Toward Health Care Workers
A constant barrage of misinformation has Idaho health care workers facing increased animosity from some patients and community members, officials say. It’s gotten so bad in northern Idaho that some Kootenai Health employees are scared to go to the grocery store if they haven’t changed out of their scrubs, said hospital spokeswoman Caiti Bobbitt on Tuesday. Some doctors and nurses at the Coeur d’Alene hospital have been accused of killing patients by grieving family members who don’t believe COVID-19 is real, Bobbitt said. Others have been the subject of hurtful rumors spread by people angry about the pandemic. (Boone, 9/29)
Anchorage Daily News: Anchorage’s Public Health Manager Resigns As City Faces Worst COVID-19 Surge Of The Pandemic
Anchorage’s public health division manager has resigned, leaving the post temporarily empty as an ongoing COVID-19 surge triggers record-level infections and strains the city’s short-staffed hospitals. Christy Lawton resigned Monday from the position she’d held since February 2019, according to an Anchorage Health Department spokesperson. Municipal officials declined to provide any additional details, citing confidentiality concerns. Prior to coming to the municipality, Lawton had served as director of the state Office of Children’s Services from 2010 until 2018. (Hollander, 9/28)
Some states are seeing improvement —
Oklahoman: As COVID Cases Slow, Oklahoma Still Struggles With ICU Beds, Leaders Say
COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are coming down in Oklahoma after the state’s rapid, delta-variant fueled spike over the summer. On Tuesday, Oklahoma’s seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases reported was 1,690, down from a peak of just over 2,800 at the end of August. Hospitalizations, which had topped 1,500 in August, were still over 1,000 on Tuesday across the state. “I’m hopeful that our state will continue to see positive progress in our pandemic response,” Health Commissioner Dr. Lance Frye said in a statement Monday. “We are cautiously optimistic about this downward trend and are thankful for the hard work of Oklahomans across the state that got us here." (Branham, 9/29)
The Oregonian: Oregon’s COVID-19 Surge Receded. Will Those Declines Continue?
A news conference meant to sum up the current state of the COVID-19 crisis in Oregon started out with a decidedly upbeat tone Tuesday -- with Gov. Kate Brown saying she had “promising news” about declining numbers of patients hospitalized and new daily infections identified. “The good news is that while we still have a long way to go, it appears things are slowly getting better,” Brown said. (Green, 9/28)
New Orleans Times-Picayune: The Delta Wave Has Crested, But Louisiana Remains In Dangerous Territory
After a record-breaking summer of COVID cases that stretched Louisiana hospitals to their breaking point, the delta wave has finally subsided in Louisiana. At the same time, the daily drumbeat of deaths has continued, and health experts warned that Louisiana needs to keep its guard up. “The good news is that we are going in the right direction -- that's clear,” said Dr. Joe Kanter, the Louisiana state health officer, at a press conference Tuesday. “The bad news … is there's just still a ton of COVID in Louisiana.” (Woodruff, 9/29)
Dallas Morning News: ‘Moving In The Correct Direction’: North Texas COVID-19 Hospitalizations Declining, Officials Say
Hospitalizations for COVID-19 are trending down across North Texas, health officials say. New admissions for coronavirus are declining in the four most populous North Texas counties, according to the latest forecast from UT Southwestern Medical Center. The number of hospitalizations in Dallas County is expected to fall steeply, to about 600 by mid-October. Currently, 765 people are hospitalized for COVID-19 in the county. Tarrant County hospitalizations, which have been higher than Dallas County’s recently, are predicted to drop to 800 by mid-October. Currently, 928 people are hospitalized for the disease in Tarrant County. (Prosser and Marfin, 9/28)
In other news about the spread of the coronavirus —
Indianapolis Star: Indiana Surpasses 15,000 COVID-19 Deaths
Indiana has surpassed 15,000 deaths from the COVID-19 virus, since the pandemic began more than a year and a half ago. The state reported an additional 89 deaths Tuesday, all of which occurred within the past week, bringing the total number of deaths to 15,069 since March of 2020. Given Indiana's population of 6.7 million, that means about one in every 445 Hoosiers has died from the coronavirus. For perspective, more people have died than live in Speedway (population 13,952) or Beech Grove (14,717). (Rudavsky, 9/28)
The Baltimore Sun: More Than 4,000 Maryland Public School Students Have Tested Positive For COVID And 16,500 Have Had To Quarantine Since Start Of School Year
More than 4,000 Maryland public school students have tested positive for COVID in the first several weeks of school and another 16,500 have been quarantined because they came in close contact with someone who had COVID-19, according to data released by the Maryland State Department of Education Tuesday. The COVID cases and those students quarantined still represented a small portion of the more than 882,000 students enrolled in Maryland public schools, but it brought into sharp focus the large numbers of students who must learn from home during a school year that is still far from normal. (Bowie, 9/28)
AP: Arkansas Governor Allows State's COVID Emergency To End
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Tuesday said he’d allowed the state’s public health emergency for the coronavirus pandemic to end, saying he didn’t need any additional powers to respond to it. Hutchinson told reporters he didn’t seek an extension from the Legislature for the emergency, which expired on Monday. But Hutchinson cautioned that the state is still feeling the effects of COVID-19, which the Health Department on Tuesday said had claimed another 21 lives in the state. (9/28)
Detroit Free Press: Whitmer: Budget Pieces Nixing COVID-19 Powers Are Unconstitutional
Michigan lawmakers cannot use the state budget to threaten the funding of local health departments that institute local school mask rules or prevent the state from requiring employees be vaccinated against COVID-19, a spokesman for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said late Tuesday. The governor's office considers these and other pandemic portions of the $70 billion budget unconstitutional and therefore unenforceable, spokesman Bobby Leddy said hours before Whitmer is set to sign the overall budget into law. (Boucher, 9/29)
