image description

UPMC Western Maryland provides Covid-19 Update

March 13th, 2020 by WCBC Radio

On Thursday, March 12, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan held a press conference mandating several actions within the state of Maryland. Topics included activating the National Guard, limiting hospital visitations, and many closures, including schools for the next two weeks. UPMC Western Maryland is working closely with local, state and regional agencies to comply with this mandate.  

 

Over the next 24 hours, UPMC Western Maryland will be implementing:

 

  • A plan for staff  at UPMC Western Maryland who may be dealing with critical childcare needs while schools have closed. 
  • Visitation limitations throughout our hospital based on the state requirements.

 

As coronavirus continues to gain media attention, social media hoaxes and disreputable news outlets are taking advantage of the situation to spread rumors and spam. To date, there are no confirmed coronavirus cases in the communities UPMC serves. If there is ever a local case, official confirmation will come from the Centers for Disease Control, the state Department of Health or local health departments.

 

If you suspect you have COVID-19 and are not having high fever or breathing problems, call your primary care physician – to get initial advice. Doing this from home is best for all and limits spread of any infection; if needed, we can guide you safely to the next care site. If you have high fever or breathing trouble, go to your emergency department – UPMC sites are ready provide care.

 

The public is also encouraged to keep up on the latest news at www.cdc.gov and www.UPMCWesternMaryland.com and by following UPMC Western Maryland on Facebook and Twitter.
 

8 Responses to “UPMC Western Maryland provides Covid-19 Update”

  1. March 13, 2020 at 2:26 pm, Dan said:

    Enough! More people have died from the flu. This is utterly ridiculous.

    Reply

  2. March 13, 2020 at 2:42 pm, Throw Away said:

    This is only the beginning. Get ready

    Reply

  3. March 13, 2020 at 2:52 pm, John T Hare said:

    People, the Coronavirus…is the flu! It isn’t some different virus. It is a strain of the flu.

    Reply

    • March 13, 2020 at 4:07 pm, FedUp said:

      > It is not the flu. It is a strain of cold viruses.

      It can be serious if your in one of the risk groups or it developed complications in the person infected. Its death rate is 30 to 60 times greater than the flu (.1%) COVID-19 is 3 to 6%.

      Trumpers stop sticking your head up the sand (or other places).

      It is not a hoax, fake news etc.

      The orange clown needs for once to do his job and put citizens over his own wants (which isn’t going to happen).

      Reply

      • March 13, 2020 at 4:28 pm, Dan said:

        > Death rate is LOWER than the flu. Inform yourself!!

        Reply

        • March 15, 2020 at 6:45 am, FedUp said:

          Your the one that needs to be informed. Your confusing total people that have died via cover-19 vs flu deaths. Its the rate. If you get the flu your at a .1% change of mortality. If you get COVID-19 its between 3 to 6 %

          Deaths are low so far because it has not spread as wide as the flue. Given the trump administrations poor handling of it that will not be the case for long.

          The Lancelet is doing an analysis and show mortality may be as high as 15%

          Reply

        • March 15, 2020 at 12:59 pm, Ken said:

          John T Hare said:

          “People, the Coronavirus…is the flu! It isn’t some different virus. It is a strain of the flu.”

          I know the nice voice in the dashboard of your truck told you that – but it is wrong.
          If you honestly care what the truth is, read the Lancet Report which is the link provided below.
          https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30566-3/fulltext

          This is not “the flu” because there is no “the flu”. A case of the flu is whatever combination of different viruses are running loose in nature during what we consider to be flu season. In fact, a flu vaccine typically includes several variants which is why you can still catch “the flu” as not all variants are included in any given vaccine.

          SARs and MERs are also flu strains and they were quite deadly. Because the medical community worldwide responded to these breakouts, we were spared being hit by them. The same held true for Ebola.

          To be clear, this isn’t the end of the world. This will be somewhat more fatal than the usual flu but the majority of deaths will be in the elderly demographic. If you are in that age range and you have a comorbidity such as COPD or diabetes, you are at high risk.

          Reply

    • March 13, 2020 at 4:27 pm, Dan said:

      > Thats wrong, it is NOT the flu.

      Reply

Leave a Reply to Dan