n LOUDOUN
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n LEESBURG
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n PUBLIC SAFETY
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n OBITUARIES
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n PUBLIC NOTICES
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Pg. 21
MAY 7, 2020
The Road to Recovery
Saluting Loudoun Heroes
Businesses Ready to Re-open, But Bracing for Change BY KARA C. RODRIGUEZ
Workers at Inova Loudoun Hospital stepped outside for a few minutes Friday evening as more than 40 vehicles from George Mason University Police, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, the Loudoun County Combined Fire and Rescue System, the Leesburg Police Department, and the Virginia State Police lined up to pay tribute to their service during a First Responder Salute to Healthcare Heroes.
That’s not something they should fear at Inova Loudoun, Puccio said, in part because patients with COVID-19 symptoms are isolated from other patients even before they enter the hospital. Everyone is screened outside the ER door, where their temperature is taken and they are given a mask. Those suspected of a possible COVID-19 infection are sent to a specially built triage area where doctors check their vital sighs, administer tests and determine whether they be sent home,
As the global business economy prepares for the great unknown—what the world will look like as it begins a slow recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic— area businesses and business leaders are doing their best to prepare. Gov. Ralph Northam said Monday that Virginia will begin lifting restrictions on businesses and churches next Friday. Northam said the announcement was aimed at giving businesses time to figure out how best to protect employees and the public, and for state leaders to develop public health guidance for employers. “That gives us an additional two weeks to watch the data and determine if we are meeting the metrics we need to see to enter phase one,” he said. Northam said the first phase of easing limits on businesses and faith communities will be dependent on the continuation of social distancing, with face coverings in the workplace and procedures for frequent hand washing and decontamination. “You’ll be able to get your haircut, but you’ll need an appointment,” Northam said. And he said that restaurants and gyms would be able to open at lower capaci-
EMERGENCY ROOM continues on page 31
RECOVERY continues on page 30
Douglas Graham/Loudoun Now
Don’t Fear the ER, Health Leaders Urge BY NORMAN K. STYER nstyer@loudounnow.com
Sitting at home with chest discomfort, or a strange numbness? Have an injury that needs stiches or an X-ray? Don’t delay treatment because you’re afraid of coming into contact with the coronavirus at the emergency department. That’s a message leaders at Inova Loudoun Hospital are working to drive home as they encounter patients who waited longer than they should have to get checked out.
“The risk of a delay in diagnosis of a medical condition far outweighs the risk of catching COIVD in the emergency department or in the hospital,” said Dr. Edward Puccio, director of emergency medicine at Inova Loudoun Hospital. “We have worked so hard over years to tell people time is brain, time is heart muscle, minutes matter, call 911. And now people are waiting hours for a heart attack. Hours or days with a stroke and all of that progress has been eliminated because of how long people are waiting because of this fear of catching COVID at the hospital.”
krodriguez@loudounnow.com
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