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THURSDAY, APRIL 2 - APRIL 8, 2020
ARCADIAWEEKLY
Since 1996
GOVERNOR NEWSOM REQUESTS ADDITIONAL MEDICAL HELP AT CRITICAL COVID-19 JUNCTURE ‘The testing process has been an ongoing challenge at all levels’ – Huntington Hospital
VOL. 24,NO. 14
Tzu Chi Makes Donation to Ensure Monrovia First Responders Remain Safe on the Job Susan MOTANDER motander@yahoo.com
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Terry MILLER tmiller@beaconmedianews.com
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irst, it was the massive Jacob Javits Center in New York which was converted to a massive field hospital. Then parts of Central Park were converted into a temporary hospital. The trend, along with the help of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is taking shape all over the country as the pandemic spreads. In Los Angeles, the Convention Center has now been designated as a field hospital site and the as the virus grows, so does the need for hospital beds in every state. Ironically, many of these field hospitals and the Navy’s Mercy floating hospital are not equipped to handle confirmed COVID-19 cases; they are there to offset the number of patients who might be seeking physicians’ assistance for conditions unrelated to the pandemic. As in New York, California is now requesting help from retired nurses, doctors and other health care providers to battle this COVID-19 war on the frontlines.
A sign outside the main entrance of Huntington Hospital says it all. - Photo by Terry Miller / Beacon Media News
Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday issued a call for health care workers to participate in a new initiative intended to help meet a possible surge in COVID-19 patients in the coming weeks. Doctors, nurses, EMTs and others who are currently not practicing can sign up at covid19.ca.gov/healthcorps. Licensed medical professionals and graduating students can register. Those who qualify will be paid and
given malpractice insurance coverage. Newsom announced the initiative as the state saw a doubling of COVID-19 patients in hospitals and the tripling of patients in intensive care units in the four days before the announcement. There have been reports that nurses and doctors are put at risk due to the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE). We contacted Methodist Hospital Tuesday
about these allegations: “The top priority for Methodist Hospital at all times is patient safety and the safety of our staff. To that end, Methodist Hospital provides all necessary Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) including masks to all of our nurses and staff to ensure that they remain safe from spread of COVID-19. Importantly, Methodist Hospital has sufficient masks for all employees who need a mask. There is
no need, nor is it safe, for any nurse to bring in their own mask. We have never run short of masks, and are prepared with sufficient quantities of masks to ensure the safety of patients and all staff through any projected surge of COVID-19 patients,” Brian Greene, director of Business Development, Marketing & Community Outreach at Methodist Hospital. SEE NEWSOM PAGE 5
he Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation (know best as the Tzu Chi Foundation) made a generous donation to Monrovia’s first responders. Tzu Chi literally means compassionate relief and the foundation lived up to its name on Tuesday when it donated hundreds of personal bottles of aerial hand sanitizer, masks and gloves to the City of Monrovia. Jackson Chen, CEO of the foundation, said that the first 200 bottles of sanitizers and 2,000 masks were “just the beginning.” Saying that they were working with their sources overseas, more of everything was coming. He also explained that volunteers at each foundation were filling the hand sanitizers themselves with the foundation buying all the supplies to put them together. Monrovia Police Chief Alan Sanvictores accepted on behalf of the city. “You have no idea how thankful SEE TZU CHI PAGE 5