One-third of the 204 veterans treated by the Veterans Health Administration who have tested positive for coronavirus have been admitted for treatment at the New Orleans VA Medical Center. Of the 65 patients who have been admitted for treatment, 44 remain in the hospital and 21 are being treated at home.
The 65 patients admitted for treatment at the New Orleans VA Medical Center are more than three times the number of cases in any other VA medical center in the country. Other clusters of veterans testing positive for coronavirus are in Atlanta (17) New York Harbor (10), Puget Sound, Washington ( 9), Bronx (8), and the Washington, D.C. VA Medical Center, according to a statement released by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Monday afternoon.
The Veterans Health Administration is one of the largest organizations within the VA, and describes itself as, “America’s largest integrated health care system, providing care at 1,255 health care facilities, including 170 medical centers and 1,074 outpatient sites of care of varying complexity (VHA outpatient clinics), serving 9 million enrolled Veterans each year.”
VA officials provided no explanations for the cluster in New Orleans, Stars and Stripes reported late Monday:
A spokesman for the New Orleans VA Medical Center said it was unclear why the facility had so many more patients than other VA hospitals. . .
VA Secretary Robert Wilkie held a phone call with veterans organizations Sunday. Wilkie told the groups he had sent teams of medical professionals to help with the pandemic response in New York City. Wilkie was preparing to send more to New Orleans, said Joe Chenelly, national executive director of AMVETS, who was on the call.
Health officials in Louisiana said Monday there were 1,172 cases of the coronavirus in the state, 567 of them in New Orleans. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards issued a stay-at-home order, effective Monday.
“These cases are being tracked by the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System. The hospitalized patients are located at the New Orleans VA Medical Center,” a spokesperson for the VA told Breitbart News on Tuesday.
“The Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System has seen a higher number of positive cases than other VA facilities, but we cannot speculate as to why at this point,” the spokesperson told Breitbart News when asked if the VA had any idea why there was such a cluster in at the New Orleans VA Medical Center.
Two of the 204 veterans who have tested positive for coronavirus have died.
Fourteen days ago, on March 10, only five VA patients had coronavirus, USA Today reported:
Veterans Affairs medical facilities across the country are screening patients and restricting visitors to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus as the agency grapples with five cases of COVID-19.
VA Secretary Robert Wilkie said visitors are not allowed at the agency’s roughly 135 nursing homes, which house more than 8,000 veterans, saying those facilities are “going into an emergency situation.”
One veteran has a confirmed case of the virus, VA officials said. Four others have tested positive, but those findings have not yet been confirmed.
The agency did not specify where the veterans are, saying they are “either in isolation at home, in accordance with CDC guidelines, or being cared for in isolation by staff who are specially trained on the latest CDC treatment guidelines and utilizing personal protective equipment and infection control techniques.”
The percentage of VA patients who have taken the COVID-19 test that test positive is 13 percent as of March 23 (204 out of 1,532), roughly on a par with the nationwide average, which is about 14 percent (42,000 out of 294,000) as of March 23 according to the COVID Tracking Project.
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