More than 50,000 Americans overseas are seeking help getting home
The scramble to get Americans home while it’s still possible comes as the State Department is finding the coronavirus striking its own workforce.
William Walters, acting deputy chief medical officer for the State Department, said the agency is aware of 58 confirmed cases in overseas posts. One bureau alone has 33 staffers who have tested positive, though Walters did not identify which posts have been hit hardest. In the United States, officials have identified 16 cases in five cities, he said.
Walters noted that the State Department has 75,000 employees, including local staff in embassies and consulates, so the virus has struck a rate of one in 1,000 staffers. He said they have been aggressively encouraging social distancing and teleworking.
CALIFORNIA
Riverside County Public Information Officer (951) 743-0075 bcfederico@rivco.org
Riverside County receives federal medical station to increase hospital capacity
Riverside County health and emergency management officials received a federal medical station (FMS) from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Starting tomorrow morning, the California National Guard will be at the fairgrounds in Indio to set up a portion of the FMS in an existing building. The California National Guard will not perform any law enforcement activities. The station will provide an additional 250 beds to the county’s overall hospital system, which will ease the burden from an expected surge in COVID19 cases.
“We know we’ll have more cases and some of them will be serious,” said Riverside County Public Health Officer Dr. Cameron Kaiser. “This medical station will relieve stress from our hospitals, allowing them to better provide higher levels of care for our sickest individuals, and get more people on the way to recovery faster.”
The FMS includes all the equipment to run a basic hospital. This includes beds, bed sheets, portable sinks, medication and 740 complete units of personal protective equipment (PPE), including N95 masks, surgical masks, gloves, gowns and face shields. These materials will be set up in two existing buildings to create two stations that will care for less acute patients.
Half of the materials will be used to set up a station the county fairgrounds in Indio, in existing buildings on the fairgrounds. The remaining materials will be used to set up an identical 125 bed facility in western Riverside County. The site for the western location will be shared soon.
“I am proud our Riverside County Fairgrounds will aid in this critical mission of providing a venue for health care,” said Riverside County Board Chair and Fourth District Supervisor V. Manuel Perez. I want to thank Congressman Ruiz as well as Assemblymembers Garcia and Mayes for their ongoing support and for ensuring that the federal medical station is established in the Coachella Valley and western Riverside County.”
Riverside County hospitals will move stable, less severe patients to the federal medical station locations. This will allow greater capacity in the county’s existing hospitals to respond to the needs of more critical patients.
The county continues to plan for the operation of the FMS, including meeting site requirements for the equipment and locating approximately 80 personnel to work in the two locations.
lucky us. Very few cases here and we get a Wuhan unit. Lovely.
Those overseas Americans knew 2 months ago to get themselves homes. Even the most lib ones should have understood this a month ago.
There was a group of students from a wealthy lib Austin, TX high school who flew to Honduras a few days ago to deliver soccer balls. Soccer balls, smh. And they had to get Cruz to take time away from working on the CV bill to sweet talk Honduras to get them home.
I was telling a friend to get her young relative home from EU. Was still telling her the day the borders there closed. The college gal had been out traveling EU by bus two days before. More, smh.