BOSTON (AP) - The coronavirus field hospital in Worcester has expanded to 75 beds and has treated 275 patients since reopening last month, officials said Wednesday.
The field hospital run by UMass Memorial Health Care first treated patients last spring.
All told, nearly 500 patients were treated at the field hospital in 2020, UMass Memorial President Dr. Eric Dickson said during a virtual town hall meeting, Masslive.com reported.
“The DCU field hospital really saved us the first time but it’s been even more important the second time,” Dickson said.
The average age of patients is 66 years old and the average length of stay is four days, he said.
The field hospital is expected to expand to 100 beds soon, he said.
“When the dust all settles, you’re going to find that this is probably going to be the most efficient, in terms of cost-efficient, field hospital in the country and one of the most utilized field hospitals in the country,” Dickson said.
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VIRUS BY THE NUMBERS
The number of newly confirmed coronavirus deaths rose by 99 on Wednesday while the number of newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 increased by more than 6,419.
The new deaths pushed the state’s confirmed COVID-19 death toll to 12,563 and its confirmed caseload since the start of the pandemic to more than 386,052.
The true number of cases is likely higher because studies suggest some people can be infected and not feel sick.
There were nearly 2,416 people reported hospitalized Wednesday because of confirmed cases of COVID-19, with more than 442 in intensive care units.
The average age of those hospitalized was 73.
The number of probable or confirmed COVID-19 deaths reported in long-term care facilities rose to 7,501.
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NURSING HOME OUTBREAK
A Massachusetts nursing home that had no confirmed COVID-19 cases from the beginning of the pandemic in March through mid-December is now dealing with an outbreak that has infected most of its residents, officials say.
Fifty-one of 58 residents at Brookside Rehabilitation and Healthcare in Webster have tested positive the past two weeks and three have died, Felicia O’Keeffe, director of nursing, told the Telegram & Gazette on Wednesday.
About 20% of the staff has tested positive.
The outbreak was traced to two asymptomatic staff nurses, O’Keeffe said. She has asked for help from the state and National Guard and said the facility is going beyond state safety protocols.
“Really, it’s because I increased my testing beyond the state guidelines,” O’Keeffe said. “Because if I followed the state guidelines, I would have only tested them once a week. But because I started testing daily, as soon as we got our first positive, that’s how we identified all of those other positives so quickly.”
Older nursing home residents are particularly vulnerable to the virus.
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NORTHEASTERN VACCINES
Northeastern University has become one of the first colleges in the U.S. to administer the coronavirus vaccine.
The Boston school announced Tuesday that 88 people who work in the university’s Cabot Testing Center and the Life Sciences Testing Center received their first dose. Those who received the vaccine included clinical and nonclinical health care workers doing direct COVID-19-facing care, police and first responders.
“It’s not only remarkable that we’re one of the first to have the vaccine, but also that we’ve built a testing facility that is the gold standard,” President Joseph Aoun said in a statement on the school’s website.
Iloisa Teixeira, who works in the Cabot Testing Center as a medical assistant overseeing swabbing, was the first Northeastern community member to receive the vaccine.
About 1,500 people in the university community are eligible for vaccinations in the state’s first phase, the school estimated.
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