There’s Cause for Cautious Optimism in Nevada.
A scheme to open a temporary hospital with 700+ beds at the Reno-Sparks Convention Centre have been put on hold. Hospitals in the two cities may well have enough intensive care rooms to handle the most vulnerable patients after all, even though previous predictions indicated there might be a shortage.
And the length between positive novel coronavirus COVID-19 test results’ doubling has slowed down. Kevin Dick, Washoe County Health District Officer, said that the projections of worst-case-scenarios are reducing over time.
Things Are Headed in the Right Direction
Dick stated that current predictions reveal that the Washoe County hospital system has gone from indicating that thousands of beds would be required to now only showing that hundreds of beds will. He said that, although these are models, and represent estimates only, everyone is feeling cautiously optimistic at the moment.
Dick says that, as time has passed and there has been more information to enter into the models, the ICU surge percentage has seen a significant decrease, and the county’s capacity is alright for now. He explained that these numbers are one of the reasons that the Reno-Sparks Convention Centre alternative-care-site plan has been abandoned.
Adam Mayberry, Washoe Incident Management Team spokesman, said that trends are going in the right direction and Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak made a similar statement during his recent public address. Sisolak added that by many metrics Nevada is one of the states showing the best results thanks to social distancing guidelines being followed to the letter.
Nevadans are staying home, enjoying real money slots New Zealand instead of games at land-based casinos, and taking care of each other by isolating from one another!
Details on the Alternative-Care-Site
The site being readied at the Reno-Sparks Convention Centre was ready to open up in just a few days. The United States Army Corps of engineers worked to design and convert parts of the 381 000 sq. ft space into a care site that would expand to hold as many as 1 000 beds. The provisional hospital was being created to tend to patients showing a broad spectrum of conditions, from mild through to critical.
If necessary, the project can be restarted quickly, requiring only two days to mobilise and seven days to construct. Mayberry said that plans and resources are in place, which means moving and setting up quickly is possible. He added, however, that at this point, waiting is what’s required.
Mayberry stated that, at this time, there is no compelling requirement for alternative healthcare sites, but he’s aware that this could change. He explained that although confidence levels are increasing every day, it’s vital that prudence and caution continue to govern our decision-making processes.
Mayberry also took the time to give Nevadans a shout-out, saying that trends are working in our favour because people are listening to what they’re being told to do. They’re following social distance guidelines to the letter and are to be commended for their contribution to the fight.