First VA patient with coronavirus treated in Calif., steps taken to protect veterans
The Department of Veterans Affairs has received its first coronavirus patient and is treating the veteran at a medical center in Palo Alto, Calif., VA Secretary Robert Wilkie said Wednesday.
Wilkie was responding to a question about what the agency was doing to protect its patients at a House Appropriations Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies subcommittee hearing. Many of the men and women being treated at VA facilities are older and may be more susceptible to illness.
“We prepared a … section of our Palo Alto campus to receive veterans who would have this virus,” Wilkie said. “That veteran is being taken care of there.”
Veterans Health Administration executive in charge Richard Stone said the veteran had initially been treated by a private hospital but asked to be transferred to a VA facility.
He said the agency had been preparing for a potential coronavirus outbreak since January and has about 1,000 “negative airflow” rooms to treat veterans.
The agency has also begun to screen each patient who comes in, Stone said. Screening is already in place in Washington state, he said.
Stone said the precautions are necessary to protect the “over 8,000 vulnerable veterans” who reside at 135 nursing homes co-located with the agency’s hospitals. “They are on our campuses, and we must protect them,” Stone said.
The VA treats approximately 9 million veterans a year at its more than 2,500 hospitals, outpatient clinics or medical centers run by the VA’s Veterans Health Administration.
Coronavirus, known as COVID-19, is spread through contact between people within six feet of each other, especially through coughing and sneezing that expels respiratory droplets that land in the mouths or noses of people nearby.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it’s possible to catch COVID-19 by touching something that has the virus on it, and then touching your own face, “but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.”
Symptoms include fever, cough and shortness of breath, which may occur two days to two weeks after exposure. The disease is especially dangerous for the elderly and others with weaker immune systems.
In the United States, at least 138 cases have been reported, including 10 deaths in Washington state. In California, at least 45 cases have been reported and one death.
This story was originally published March 4, 2020 at 3:46 PM.
