Cleveland Clinic CEO Dr. Tomislav Mihaljevic told CNBC Friday morning that the hospital system had discovered five positive cases of COVID-19 Thursday, the first day of its in-house testing process. (The remarks come at the tail end of the interview embedded above, ~7:15.)
Mihaljevic said that some of the new cases were patients who had alerted the hospital ahead of time because of known exposure, but “some of them walked into our emergency room.”
These new cases, which are likely to be officially announced later Friday, are on top of five positive cases previously identified in the state: three in Cuyahoga County, one in Stark County and one in Trumbull County.
Milhaljevic said that testing would continue to ramp up locally and nationwide after the FDA has relaxed guidelines for testing. Large hospitals with sophisticated internal technology and skilled workers will be able to test many more patients in-house.
The Clinic can currently test about 500 patients per day and hopes to be at 1,000/day capacity by next week. At a local press conference Thursday, Mihaljevic said that all COVID-19 testing would be free for insured and uninsured patients.
Positive COVID-19 cases can be expected to grow dramatically. Yesterday, Gov. Mike DeWine and Ohio Public Health Director Amy Acton said that at least 100,000 people in the state were likely already infected with the disease. (The 1 percent estimate may be even higher in Cuyahoga County, where there have been a concentration of positive cases. That means that at least 12,000 are probably infected in Cuyahoga County.)
All gatherings of 100 or more people have been banned, along with visits to nursing homes and psychiatric hospitals. K-12 schools, starting Monday, will close for a three-week “extended spring break.”
All these measures have been enacted to prevent the spread of the virus, and have been pursued, DeWine said, with the state’s elderly and vulnerable populations at top of mind.
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This article appears in Mar 11-17, 2020.
Do we know how many tests were administered in that first day that resulted in five new positives? Seems like a question that should have been asked.
Thank God for the Cleveland Clinic.
2020 will be noted as the year the usa news outlets scared everyone for very little reason
Y’all underestimating this are ridiculous. Too many weirdo conspiracy theorists. Yes, it may have flu like symptoms. However, do you not have parents? Grand parents? Anyone in your family with respiratory issues? What happens when you just do not care about this, get it, then spread it. Take a look at Italy right now, they have so many infected, they can’t treat them and almost 1000 have died in 24 hours! So yes, you may not die; however, you may be the cause of others dieing. There is nothing wrong with social separation and letting this thing dissipate as it should.
It said they can test up to 500 and a later comment said 1% so assume until they publish their dashboard that is is 1%.
Ummmm I’m sitting at South Pointe, any chance we know which facilities? 😒
Will the employees that had contact with these patients be notified? When will they be notified? Will they be asked to quarantine? What if the employee has a compromised immune system or another underlying medical condition?
When this is over I hope we can go back to sneezing in each others faces, never washing our hands, and sucking on our fingers.
Israeli government says they were by coincidence already working on a vaccine for the Corona virus before the outbreak. “Let’s call it pure luck. We decided to choose Corona virus as a model for our system.” – Israeli scientist.
There’s no fucking way I’m taking trump’s vaccine.
Well shit, somebody better tell those celebrities that holding a hand over their one eye or covering their mouth in secret occult hand signs that they could easily get the Corona that way.
A lot of deleted comments here. A must if you’re trying to control the narrative, cant have anyone spreading ideas ya know.
it’s not Trump’s vaccine . A president- i don’t care how smart they are-cannot produce a vaccine. that’s up to the medical field to develop. I’m in a high risk group. You bet i’m going to get the vaccine once it’s discovered and made available. I remember polio and how it was wiped out by a vaccine.
hey squid! My husband and i were at the Cleveland Clinic for a serious health issue of my husband. First time we were ever in Cleveland. Also been in Pittsburgh. Hospital down there. Given a choice would take Cleveland any day. The people were fantastic-the city incredible. You don’t know how lucky you are out there. Great city; as city goes. We’re small town people who live in a rural area. NOTHING like Cleveland. If i had any city to pick to live in-after our visit-it would be Cleveland.