As day 8 of SIP [shelter in place] comes to a close we are hearing more news of rising COVID-19 cases both nationally and locally. As of today there were 1023 confirmed cases in the Bay Area while Los Angeles reported the first possible pediatric death from COVID-19. Many of our area hospitals are ramping up planning for surge patient volumes, but we still have very limited testing capacity. Items we want to share:
- keeping our staff safe while staying open to serve our patients and families is our priority; we have made changes to PWG protocols so please see our 3/23/20 update for details.
- we encourage you to use the portal which allows you to communicate with us via email. We are working on a way to have families sign up for the portal without having to come into the office and will announce those details on our website, Facebook and Instagram pages.
- we do not have access to unlimited tests for COVID-19 and are referring to local test centers. They are telling us they also have very limited access to testing and are following CDC guidelines to decide who gets tested. These include: if you or your child have a fever AND a cough AND trouble breathing AND/OR travel to a hotspot AND/OR known exposure to COVID-19 than testing may be indicated.
- We want to thank all of our families for doing their part in keeping our kids and our community healthy by following health department directives and NOT walking in to our office without calling us first.
- here are 2 online tools to help you determine if you need to be seen and/or tested for COVID-19:
- the CDC and Microsoft have collaborated to create a coronoavirus self-checker
- Vital, a digital platform for emergency care, launched a Coronavirus checker on 3/20/20
We wanted to share this picture of Krystal, one of our fantastic MAs, who has been doing a very deep clean of our entire office. Team PWG is committed to the health and well being of our staff, patients, families and community. We are strong and we will get through this!