Day 9 of SIP [shelter in place] is coming to a close, and there is much to share with all of you:
- Los Angeles Public Health Department has retracted yesterday’s report of a pediatric fatality from COVID-19, and we are not aware of any local pediatric fatalities from COVID-19
- There is evidence that California is seeing a much slower rate of rise of COVID-19 infections which is very good news! Local experts are still expecting numbers to rise, local hospitals are still planning for a surge in patients, and following CDC and local county guidelines about social distancing/shelter-in-place is even more important now.
- We are getting lots of questions about whether it is safe to use ibuprofen right now, and there are a lot of internet warnings based on the 3/14/20 statement from the French Minister of Health. As of 3/18/20 the World Health Organization stated “based on currently available information, WHO does not recommend against the use of ibuprofen.” Experts in the USA continue to review the research but have NOT issued warnings about using ibuprofen as of today. If you have further concerns or questions we encourage you to reach out to your doctor at PWG.
- Testing remains very limited in our area, 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.
- 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 patient portal which allows you to communicate with us via email. We are actively 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 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.
We wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of our staff. Mary Kate, our intrepid medical assistant, sewed masks for all of us this week! Team PWG is here for our families and our community, we are strong and we will get through this!