Speaker 1: Welcome to Prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day one and
Speaker 1: seven since coronavirus was declared a global pandemic. Our main story.
Speaker 1: It's well known that nursing homes have suffered some of
Speaker 1: the worst COVID nineteen outbreaks, but some care homes seem
Speaker 1: to be much safer than others. So what's the secret
Speaker 1: to protecting elderly patients? But first, here's what happened in
Speaker 1: virus news today. Florida suspended drinking at bars across the state,
Speaker 1: effective immediately today. It was the state's first major policy
Speaker 1: shift in response to a surge in COVID nineteen cases
Speaker 1: this month. The state's one day increase in cases Friday
Speaker 1: was its biggest ever. Other Sun Belt hotspots are also
Speaker 1: seeing cases continue to rise. Cases in Arizona jumped five
Speaker 1: point four percent today and the state had its biggest
Speaker 1: yet jump in hospitalizations. Governor Doug Doocy said Thursday that
Speaker 1: hospitals are likely to hit surge capacity very soon, with
Speaker 1: a number of cases and hospitalizations expected to worsen in
Speaker 1: the next two weeks. And in Harris County, Texas, where
Speaker 1: Houston is located, a Level one emergency was declared today
Speaker 1: that's equivalent to a recommendation that residents stay at home
Speaker 1: as much as possible to prevent or slow the spread
Speaker 1: of the virus. Finally, the alarming spread of the virus
Speaker 1: in the US isn't stopping some airlines from forging ahead
Speaker 1: with a comp fleet return to pre COVID business as usual.
Speaker 1: American Airlines will sell flights to capacity starting on Wednesday,
Speaker 1: abandoning limits on passenger loads it had put in place
Speaker 1: as a coronavirus safety measure. United Airlines hasn't guaranteed to
Speaker 1: block seats, but Delta Airlines has said it will keep
Speaker 1: middle seats open through September. Southwest Airlines has committed to
Speaker 1: block middle seats unless customers are traveling together. And now
Speaker 1: for our main story around the world, care homes have
Speaker 1: been a hotbit for COVID nineteen outbreaks because older people
Speaker 1: are particularly vulnerable. Nursing homes and assisted living facilities have
Speaker 1: had some of the deadliest outcomes during the pandemic, but
Speaker 1: some nursing homes have done much better than others at
Speaker 1: containing the virus spread and protecting their elderly residents. Bloomberg
Speaker 1: reporter Angelica Livito reports that one company in the Seattle
Speaker 1: area learned early in the pandemic the essential ingredient for
Speaker 1: COVID management. Testing, testing and testing again. So I'll start
Speaker 1: by well, coming everybody, thank you for coming. And this
Speaker 1: is important WAK. We're fighting the invisible enemy UM. Today's
Speaker 1: broad testing. We're testing all residents and all staff. He
Speaker 1: at the University House Wallingford. Albert Nanga is the regional
Speaker 1: director of Health and Wellness at Era Living. He is
Speaker 1: preparing to test residents at University House Wallingford and assisted
Speaker 1: living facility in Seattle. Testing is a key tool to
Speaker 1: identifying people infected with the novel coronavirus and assisted living
Speaker 1: facilities and nursing homes. It might sound obvious now, but
Speaker 1: that was not always the case, and Nursing Home first
Speaker 1: exposed the US to just how deadly the novel coronavirus
Speaker 1: could be. The virus swept through the Life Care Center
Speaker 1: of Kirkland in late February. It infected residents and employees alike.
Speaker 1: Deaths had been linked to the Washington facility a short
Speaker 1: drive away in Seattle. Alarm bells started going off at
Speaker 1: Earra Living's Ida Call of our House for Venna in
Speaker 1: early March. One resident visited his doctor on March four.
Speaker 1: His earlier trip to an urgent care center did not
Speaker 1: resolve the unexplained confusion he was experiencing. The doctor prescribed
Speaker 1: antibiotics for what looked like bacterial pneumonia. On the way
Speaker 1: back to the ida call of her house, the family
Speaker 1: called that the heads up suspicious. A nurse called Manonga
Speaker 1: and so for me, that was a rich flag. I
Speaker 1: for minus that let's talk to the family to see
Speaker 1: if we can actually request this resident not to enter
Speaker 1: the community but proceed to the emergence room and detested.
Speaker 1: At the time, we are not testing abilities anywhere. Two
Speaker 1: days later, on March six, the hospital called the resident
Speaker 1: tested positive. We are to stay calm. We anticipated that
Speaker 1: it could potentially cause a lot of panic in many
Speaker 1: people around within and outside the combility. So we had
Speaker 1: to come together and to seek some understanding of what
Speaker 1: we delivered with and we agreed on sweeping protective measures
Speaker 1: to be able to potentially it's so late anyone any
Speaker 1: kind of symptoms that we thought could be of concern.
Speaker 1: Presidents and employees were notified. Were kers who came in
Speaker 1: close contact with the patient were sent home. The dining
Speaker 1: room was closed. Meals were delivered to residents who were
Speaker 1: asked to stay in their apartments, but the virus was
Speaker 1: already lurking inside. Fever, cop and other flu like symptoms
Speaker 1: are the hallmarks of COVID nineteen. The first patient did
Speaker 1: not show any of those signals. He died on March nine.
Speaker 1: Another resident was hospitalized on March tenth. There was no
Speaker 1: way to know how many others were infected. Ear A
Speaker 1: Living had already been exploring how it could test everyone,
Speaker 1: says Vice President of Operations Nissan Harrel. It was challenging
Speaker 1: because at the time the testing guidelines were very narrow,
Speaker 1: and we felt the only way to know if you
Speaker 1: have it is to test, which seems simple, but we
Speaker 1: felt really strong that we had to get that done,
Speaker 1: and we had wanted it from the very beginning when
Speaker 1: we heard there was a positive test um, and we
Speaker 1: had been having conversations of about that, but then once
Speaker 1: the resident passed away, we made a phone calls at
Speaker 1: night and really pushed to to have it done. The
Speaker 1: next day, University of Washington researchers came in and tested
Speaker 1: all residents and employees. Infectious disease specialist Dr Alison Roxby
Speaker 1: and her team were afraid and outbreak was brewing inside.
Speaker 1: I've participated in surveys in multiple congregate settings in King County, Washington,
Speaker 1: and we have seen many outbreaks that take off like wildfire.
Speaker 1: So having one patient positive in a community can quickly
Speaker 1: result in many positive patients if people are not distancing
Speaker 1: appropriately and if they don't have adequate personal protective equipment
Speaker 1: or PPE. Nanga says he was not afraid, but he
Speaker 1: was prepared. I was prepared for potential wide spread because
Speaker 1: we didn't know that the covidos into community. Nobody had
Speaker 1: dressed their symptoms. Gentlemen that had nothing exhibited no science.
Speaker 1: Now we worked up to a new reality that potentially
Speaker 1: look with that better people without two dumps, and so
Speaker 1: I was prepared to see in Hambok cases. Through that experience,
Speaker 1: Roxby and her team at the University of Washington screened
Speaker 1: everyone for symptoms. They asked them to record anything out
Speaker 1: of the ordinary, like a cough or a fever. Then
Speaker 1: they swabbed three of eighty residents and two of sixty
Speaker 1: two workers tested positive. Some did not report any symptoms.
Speaker 1: They tested all residents again one week later. Just one
Speaker 1: more resident tested positive. The interventions worked. Roxby and her
Speaker 1: team shared the results in a study that was published
Speaker 1: in a medical journal and shared by the CDC. Her
Speaker 1: conclusion testing can catch infections that screening for symptoms can't.
Speaker 1: We were very hardened that despite having two patients in
Speaker 1: the facility with confirmed coronavirus, that we did not see
Speaker 1: a facility wide outbreak, and it suggested to us that
Speaker 1: when facilities follow all of the recommendations, it's possible to
Speaker 1: avoid a facility wide outbreak. Ida culver House Ravenna has
Speaker 1: not detected another case of COVID nineteen among its residents.
Speaker 1: Parent company Era Living has since tested its roughly two
Speaker 1: thousand five d residents and employees across its eight communities
Speaker 1: in the Seattle area. Four residents have died, nineteen residents
Speaker 1: and seventeen workers tested positive and recovered. The company is
Speaker 1: now in the process of testing everyone again. Sit back
Speaker 1: in your chair. I'm gonna put this in and we're
Speaker 1: going to count to ten. Okay, ready, cart with me,
Speaker 1: Mononga says broad testing informed air Livings practice. All these
Speaker 1: measures we had away delivery wonderful outcomes for us in
Speaker 1: terms of limiting the spread of copy nine. And this
Speaker 1: is I think the story of how we overcame two three, four, five, six, seven,
Speaker 1: eight nine excellent. I'm gonna go to the other side. Okay,
Speaker 1: you are so good. Almost killed. It's been nearly four
Speaker 1: months since the IDA call our house, Ravenna and assisted
Speaker 1: living facilities across the country canceled activities and barred visitors.
Speaker 1: The virus continues spreading in the US, with new hotspots
Speaker 1: emerging in states like Arizona and Texas. In Seattle, restrictions
Speaker 1: are starting to loosen air livings, residents can leave their
Speaker 1: rooms and walk outside, and testing remains a crucial part
Speaker 1: to keeping them safe. Safety is not a game of chance.
Speaker 1: We need to make sure we trip or check every
Speaker 1: single time. You guys, thank you for you angelic help.
Speaker 1: We always have precated you for for all the other
Speaker 1: volunteers from other communities. A house Brodie, thank you so much,
Speaker 1: you guys. All right, that was Angelica Levito and that's
Speaker 1: our show today. Before we go. A programming note, starting
Speaker 1: next week, we will drop our Tuesday and Thursday episodes.
Speaker 1: That's not because coronavirus isn't still the most important news
Speaker 1: story in the world. It is and we expect it
Speaker 1: will continue to be, but in recent weeks other important
Speaker 1: issues have also begun to demand our attention in the US,
Speaker 1: for example, a profound reckoning with racism and a potentially
Speaker 1: world changing presidential election in a few months. We have
Speaker 1: no intention of abandoning our commitment to cover the full
Speaker 1: range of stories related to COVID nineteen. We are simply
Speaker 1: stepping back slightly to make room for some others. And
Speaker 1: that's it for our show today. For coverage of the
Speaker 1: outbreak from one bureaus around the world, visit Bloomberg dot
Speaker 1: com slash coronavirus and if you like the show, please
Speaker 1: leave us a review and a rating on Apple Podcasts
Speaker 1: or Spotify. It's the best way to help more listeners
Speaker 1: find our global reporting. The Prognosis Daily edition is produced
Speaker 1: by Tophor foreheads Jordan Gaspore, Magnus Hendrickson, and me Laura Carlson.
Speaker 1: Today's main story was reported by Angelica Levido. Original music
Speaker 1: by Leo Sidrin. Our editors are Rick Shine and Francesco Levi.
Speaker 1: Francesco Levi is Bloomberg's head of Podcasts. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: H