From the daily media briefing on COVID-19 by The University of Kansas Health System, there’s been a slight uptick in the number of inpatients being treated in the hospital for COVID-19. It has increased from 29 yesterday to 34 today. Of those, 11 are in the ICU, down from 12 yesterday. Nine patients are on ventilators, same as yesterday. Several patients have recovered and been discharged and are doing well.
Dr. Steve Stites, chief medical officer at the health system says while we’ve started to bend the curve, we won’t know for sure for another month, given how long it takes the disease to manifest itself. But he also says the biggest mistake we can make is going back to normal too soon, as we still have a long way to go before this pandemic is considered under control. He says this is the challenge of our time and will define us. He also says patient telehealth video visits, using encrypted and protected video, rather than in person visits are skyrocketing, and are working well, based on the increase in patient satisfaction scores.
Joining the panel was Ronald Chen, M.D., chair of radiation oncology at The University of Kansas Health System. He says it’s especially important for cancer patients to observe the stay-at-home rules and other social distancing because they are at risk for more severe symptoms or death from COVID-19. But he says there’s no evidence that long-term cancer survivors have any added risk. He’s confident research, including that being done on this campus, will be the key to beating this disease.
Dana Hawkinson, MD, medical director of infectious prevention and control at The University of Kansas Health System said while there are many models in use with wildly different predictions of COVID-19 death rates, it’s important to remember those are only educated guesses. Doctors at The University of Washington in Seattle, where one of the more visible models is produced, admit that it’s easier to predict the weather than this disease’s death rate. He also addresses the role of antibody testing, and whether it’s really the next big thing in the battle. He adds that researchers are continuing to evaluate new drugs and therapies, as well as repurposing current medicines. He stresses that it’s vital to keep up staying at home, social distancing and proper hand hygiene so we can get to a pre-COVID society.
Thursday, April 16, at 8:00 a.m. is the next daily briefing call and will include three family practice physicians from our greater Kansas health system. They will discuss the effects of COVID-19 on smaller communities.
The feed is now available via TVU grid. The TVU source is UoK_Health and is being made available to all. You will still need to call-in to ask questions.
Telephone dial-in Participants:
Dial: 1-913-588-2222, and enter 50041981# when prompted for the Call ID. Feel free to send questions in advance to medicalnewsnetwork@kumc.edu.
