“Blatantly irresponsible” and “dangerous.” That’s what the District of Columbia Nurses Association (DCNA) is calling the D.C. Department of Health’s failure to test all health care personnel who have been exposed to patients or staff. “A patient at United Medical Center in southeast D.C. has died from COVID -19, and another patient at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital tested positive for the virus,” said DCNA. “In both cases, DC Health refused to test the nurses and other hospital staff who cared for the patients, thus jeopardizing not only their health, but the health of other staff members at the hospitals and their families.” At Howard University Hospital, a nurse died from corona virus last Friday. He was the first member of DCNA and National Nurses United to succumb to Covid-19, and DCNA Executive Director Edward Smith warned that “If an inordinate number of clinicians become ill in the District, it will result in a tremendous strain on D.C. hospitals to deliver care during this crisis, and we don’t want that to occur in the nation’s capital.”
photo courtesy DCNA Facebook
photo courtesy DCNA Facebook
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