Coronavirus Update and Health System Preparations - 6/2

Testing and Confirmed Cases
In the following update you will see the number of COVID-19 positive inpatients has continued to decline since last week. It is important to note that the persons under investigation (those inpatients awaiting a COVID-19 test result) have CONTINUED TO GO up and when their results come back it is likely that some or many of them will be reclassified as COVID-19 positive inpatients. The current delay in results is, in part, due to supply shortages for in-house testing. DCH is currently relying on external labs until more supplies come in (likely later this week).

To protect patient privacy, DCH has established a minimum threshold of five for reporting numbers of inpatients with laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19.

DCH internal counts as of 3:20 p.m. on 6/2/20:

• 65 inpatients are being treated for COVID-19.

• 22 inpatients who are positive for COVID-19 are being treated in the ICU.

• Nine who are positive for COVID-19 are on ventilators.

• 712 (cumulative) have tested positive for COVID-19 including individuals from the ED, triage tent and inpatient. These individuals are not necessarily in the hospital.

• 7,518(cumulative) have tested negative at DCH sites.

• 138 inpatients (cumulative) who were positive for COVID-19 have been discharged.

• 37 inpatients (cumulative) who were positive for COVID-19 have died at DCH.

Comorbidities
It is not uncommon for a primary diagnosis to be accompanied by additional health conditions, known as comorbidities. Comorbidities often make treatment more complex and may make it more difficult for the patient to fight off the illness.

An example of this is heart disease. It is not uncommon for heart disease to be accompanied by hypertension, obesity, diabetes and even joint problems. All of these additional things can make treatment and recovery more difficult. This appears to be true with COVID-19 as well.

The CDC has been tracking COVID-19 and regularly providing updates on conditions creating a higher risk for those who contract COVID-19. That list can be found here https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/groups-at-higher-risk.html.

DCH has also been tracking the medical conditions of those who have tested positive for COVID-19. Included today is an overview of those conditions broken down by age and gender. Similar to the demographics charts introduced last week, red means deceased, blue means discharged and gray means current inpatient. Information on diabetes is still being compiled and will likely be included in a future release of these charts.