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Category Archives: Infectious Virus
Fauci warns states rushing to reopen: ‘You’re making a really significant risk’
Fauci, who has repeatedly cautioned against prematurely easing restrictions, said he already noticed that some states and cities are not adhering to the steps laid out in the White House’s recently issued guidance on reopening — a plan that administration officials say will now replace the expired federal social distancing measures.
“If you follow the guidelines, there’s a continuity that’s safe, that’s prudent and that’s careful,” he said.
But if governors rush to reopen when they aren’t ready, Fauci cautioned that the move would likely only set back the progress their states have made.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that when you pull back mitigation, you’re going to start seeing cases crop up here and there,” he said. “If you’re not able to handle them, you’re going to see another peak, a spike, and then you almost have to turn the clock back to go back to mitigation.”
Fauci’s comments come as dozens of states have unveiled plans to begin easing stay-at-home orders, with some changes already taking effect despite the number of coronavirus cases and related deaths continuing to rise nationwide. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), for example, weathered intense criticism, including from President Trump, after announcing that he would lift restrictions on a wide array of businesses, allowing them to open a week ago.
The patchwork effort to return to some semblance of normalcy coupled with the absence of stringent social distancing recommendations has left health experts worried, The Washington Post’s Yasmeen Abutaleb and Rachel Weiner reported. Attempts to reopen states too soon at a time when social distancing remains the most effective way to stem the spread of the virus could increase the risk of new outbreaks, experts say. According to most recent figures, the United States has more than 1 million cases of the coronavirus and nearly 63,000 deaths.
On Thursday, Fauci appeared to echo those concerns, but stressed that major problems could be avoided so long as states adhere to the federal government’s reopening guidelines, which he described as “very well thought out and very well delineated.”
“I keep trying to articulate to the public and to the leaders, ‘Take a look at the guidelines,’ ” Fauci said on CNN. “They don’t tell you because you’ve reached the end of the 30-day mitigation period that, all of a sudden, you switch a light on and you just go for it. That’s not the way to do it. Each state, each city, each region is going to be a little different.”
Citing the guidelines, Fauci reiterated that states need to report a steady decrease in coronavirus cases within a 14-day period in addition to meeting other requirements before even thinking about moving on to the first phase of reopening.
“The discretion is given to the governors, they know their states. The mayors know their cities, so you want to give them a little wiggle room,” he said. “But my recommendation is don’t wiggle too much.”
While Fauci acknowledged that some local leaders are following the guidance, he said “others are taking a bit of a chance.”
“I hope they can actually handle any rebound that they see,” he added.
Later in the segment, Fauci was asked by CNN’s chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta about whether the rise in cases in states that are reopening would be incremental or exponential. In response, Fauci said that though he doesn’t know for sure, he doubted that any area would see “something as explosive as we saw in New York.” New York, which has yet to lift restrictions, is the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak with more than 300,000 confirmed cases and roughly 23,600 deaths.
But he warned that states could really find themselves in trouble if infections managed to “spill over into the general community,” similar to the way the virus spread in New York.
“If you can’t stop that from happening, then I think you’re really going to see the sharp peak,” Fauci said. “That is going to be very disturbing when that happens because it’s really going to take a while to get it back down.”
Romney calls for hazard pay for workers on the front line of the pandemic
“This is a proposal which I think is fiscally responsible but also recognizes the additional risk that people are taking,” Romney said in a phone interview with The Washington Post on Friday.
He noted that an essential worker who earns less than $22 per hour may ultimately be paid less than someone earning unemployment benefits that were bolstered by Congress in recent virus rescue packages.
“That’s not fair, number one,” Romney said. “And number two, it would create an anomaly, of course, for people to be taking additional risk of their health and have someone else not working making more than they are.”
The idea of hazard pay — additional compensation for those on the front lines of the pandemic — has broad conceptual support in Washington, yet neither lawmakers nor the Trump administration addressed the issue in the economic and health relief bill, totaling nearly $3 trillion, passed thus far.
President Trump has spoken in general terms about providing additional pay to critical medical personnel, and the White House has indicated that the administration is working with Congress on doing so. Senate Democrats have released a plan, dubbed the “Heroes Fund,” that provides up to $25,000 per person for a broad category of essential personnel including not just health-care employees but also food workers and delivery drivers.
Romney’s proposal covers a similarly broad swath of workers. The Labor Department and Congress would determine what industries would be deemed “essential,” but they would include at a minimum hospitals, food distributors and manufacturers. Employers would have to prove that workers would be in conditions that increased their exposure to the coronavirus to qualify for the bonus.
Three-quarters of that additional money would be paid for by the federal government in the form of a refundable payroll tax credit, and the rest would be picked up by their employer. That pay boost would last from May 1 through July 31 under Romney’s plan.
Someone earning $50,000 or less per year would receive an additional $12 per hour, with the hourly increase gradually phased out as salaries increase. The maximum qualifying salary would be $90,000.
Romney, a former Massachusetts governor with a lengthy business background, has spoken to other GOP senators and said that while opinions may differ, the concept of hazard pay could be gaining traction among Republicans.
“It strikes me that we’re open to considering a wide array of opportunities to help people that are serving the public,” Romney said. “And a number of individuals have expressed an openness to considering different ideas.”
Why summer likely won’t save us from the coronavirus
https://www.vox.com/2020/4/29/21231906/coronavirus-pandemic-summer-weather-heat-humidity-uv-light
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Summer weather could help slow the coronavirus. But it’s likely not enough.
Some Americans are hoping for a natural reprieve to social distancing as the coronavirus pandemic drags on: that sunnier, warmer, and more humid weather in the summer will destroy the Covid-19 virus — as it does with other viruses, like the flu — and let everyone go back to normal.
There is some evidence that heat, humidity, and ultraviolet light could hurt the coronavirus — an idea that President Donald Trump bizarrely leaned into when he suggested the use of “ultraviolet or just very powerful light … inside the body” to treat people sickened by Covid-19 (an idea with no scientific merit, as experts have repeatedly stated).
But even if heat, humidity, and light help slow the virus’s spread, sunny, hot, and humid weather alone won’t be enough to end the epidemic. Experts point to the examples of Singapore, Ecuador, and Louisiana, all of which have recently had growing numbers of Covid-19 cases despite temperatures hitting 80-plus degrees Fahrenheit and humidity levels reaching more than 60, 70, or even 80 percent.
High levels of heat, UV light, and humidity can help prevent more widespread infections of the flu or colds in the summer, along with medical treatments and vaccines (when available). But the Covid-19 coronavirus is still new to humans, so we don’t have as much immune protection built up against it — so the virus seems able to overcome summer-like weather and still cause big outbreaks.
“For the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, we have reason to expect that like other betacoronaviruses, it may transmit somewhat more efficiently in winter than summer, though we don’t know the mechanism(s) responsible,” Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at Harvard, wrote. “The size of the change is expected to be modest, and not enough to stop transmission on its own.”
Still, the studies on heat, light, and humidity, plus the fact coronavirus has a harder time spreading in open-air areas, suggest that the outdoors may be a safe target for a slow reopening as transmission of the virus slows, as long as precautions like physical distancing and mask-wearing are followed. So outdoor activities could offer a respite to lockdowns and quarantines — one that’s also, potentially, good for physical and mental health.
It also means that if Covid-19 becomes endemic (a disease that regularly comes back, like the flu or common cold), then heat, sunlight, and humidity could restrict bigger outbreaks to fall and winter. But that possibility is likely still years away, experts say.
So summer weather may make the outdoors a little safer, but it won’t be enough to quash coronavirus on its own. That means we’ll likely need to continue social distancing to some degree in the coming months, and continue working on getting more testing, aggressive contact tracing, and medical treatments up to scale before places can safely reopen their economies.
Hotter, more humid weather does seem to hurt the coronavirus
There are a few ways that summer weather could have an effect on SARS-CoV-2. Higher temperatures can help weaken the novel coronavirus’s outer lipid layer, similar to how fat melts in greater heat. Humidity in the air can effectively catch virus-containing droplets that people breathe out, causing these droplets to fall to the ground instead of reaching another human host — making humidity a shield against infection. UV light, which there’s a lot more of during sunny summer days, is a well-known disinfectant that effectively fries cells and viruses.
“There are multiple coronaviruses out there that affect our population, and many of them, if not most of them, exhibit a seasonal influence,” Mauricio Santillana, the director of the Machine Intelligence Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital and a researcher on the effects of the weather on coronavirus, told me. “The hypothesis postulated for Covid-19 is that it will have a similar behavior.”
But that’s hypothetical. How does it play out in reality?
So far, the coronavirus has largely spread in the Northern Hemisphere, where it’s been winter and early spring. It’s not clear if the weather is a reason for that, because data on its spread in the Southern Hemisphere — particularly poorer countries in Africa and South America — is largely lacking due to weak public health infrastructure.
Still, we have some evidence. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine — one of America’s top scientific evidence reviewers — summarized the research earlier in April. It looked at two kinds of studies: those that tested the effects of summer-like temperatures in a laboratory, and those that attempted to tease out the effects of heat, UV light, and humidity in the real world.
In the lab, researchers use sophisticated tools to see how the virus fares in different conditions. Generally, they’ve found more heat, UV light, and humidity seem to weaken the coronavirus — although one preliminary study suggested that coronavirus may fare better in the more summer-like conditions than the flu, SARS, and monkeypox viruses.
This is the kind of study Bill Bryan, the undersecretary for science and technology at the Department of Homeland Security, presented at the April 23 White House press briefing. That study found that coronavirus seemed to die off much more quickly in hotter, more humid environments with a lot of UV light.
As the National Academies noted, however, this evidence comes with big caveats. Perhaps most importantly, these studies haven’t yet been peer reviewed. So they could have big methodological errors that we just don’t know about yet. (This Wired article does a good job breaking down the concerns with such early research.)
But even if these studies are well-conducted, the real world is simply a lot messier than a laboratory setting. For example, the lab-grown virus used in these studies may act at least somewhat differently than the natural virus in the real world.
People can also act differently in summer than they do in winter, and the lab studies don’t account for how those behaviors affect coronavirus’s spread. People are more likely to stay indoors during the winter to avoid the cold — but indoor spaces are generally more poorly ventilated and cramped, both of which make it easier for the coronavirus to spread. Warmth and sunshine also could impact the immune system, though that relationship is still unclear.
We’ll get more evidence on real-life seasonal effects as the months go by — especially if more places take potentially dangerous risks. “In Georgia, where they are opening back up without really any concrete measures to encourage distancing, we might be able to better evaluate how [the coronavirus] spreads in the summer months,” Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia, told me.
But there is some early real-world research already, which the National Academies also reviewed. These studies looked at whether the SARS-CoV-2 virus was affected by different climates in real-world settings, and if it spread more easily in places where it was colder and less humid and there was less UV light. Some researchers also developed models based on data from different outbreaks in different parts of the world.
One upcoming study from a group of researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center tried to model the effects of heat, humidity, and UV light, finding that they mitigated the spread of the virus. UV light seemed to play a bigger role, although the researchers cautioned that their findings will need to be replicated and verified with, ideally, years of data. “This is a very new virus, and there are lots of things we don’t know about it,” Azar Abadi, one of the researchers, told me.
But this aligns with the evidence that the National Academies reviewed.
“There is some evidence to suggest that SARS-CoV-2 may transmit less efficiently in environments with higher ambient temperature and humidity,” Harvey Fineberg, author of the National Academies report, wrote. “[H]owever, given the lack of host immunity globally, this reduction in transmission efficiency may not lead to a significant reduction in disease spread without the concomitant adoption of major public health interventions.”
Heat and humidity won’t be enough to beat the pandemic — far from it
This is the point experts emphasized again and again: It’s one thing for the weather to have some sort of effect on coronavirus; it’s another thing for that effect to be enough to actually halt the virus’s widespread transmission. We have early evidence the weather has an effect, but we also have early evidence that it won’t be enough.
The problem: Other factors, besides the weather, play a role in the spread of diseases. In the case of coronavirus, these other factors seem to play a much bigger role than weather.
The mayor of Guayaquil, Ecuador, where it’s regularly 80-plus degrees Fahrenheit, described her city’s experience with Covid-19 “like the horror of war” and “an unexpected bomb falling on a peaceful town.” Ecuador now has one of the worst coronavirus death tolls in the world — a sign that warm, sunny, and humid weather can’t make up for struggling public health infrastructure in a still-developing country.
Singapore, which is nearly on the equator, managed to contain coronavirus at first, but it has seen a growing outbreak recently. The problem, it seems, is the government neglected migrant workers in its initial response — letting Covid-19 spread in the cramped and sometimes unsanitary conditions many migrants live in. Warm, humid weather alone wasn’t enough to overcome preexisting issues and an overly narrow public policy response.
Meanwhile, Louisiana is suffering a significant coronavirus outbreak, with the fifth-most deaths per 100,000 people out of all the states. According to experts, Mardi Gras — held on February 25 — may have accelerated that. The massive celebration seemed to cause a lot of transmission, even as New Orleans saw temperatures up to the 70s, and cases continued to climb even as temperatures reached the 80s. Maybe the weather made things better than they would be otherwise, but it was, again, no match for human behavior’s effects on the spread of Covid-19.
The bigger problem is too many people in the US are still vulnerable to the virus. “While we see some influence [of the weather], the effect that we’re seeing — if there’s any effect — is eclipsed by the high levels of susceptibility in the population,” Santillana said. “Most people are still highly susceptible. So even if temperature or humidity could play a role, there’s not enough immunity.”
That made it extremely easy for the virus to spread, regardless of the weather, especially since SARS-CoV-2 appears to be so contagious relative to other pathogens. In contrast, if you think about the viruses that are more affected by the seasons — the flu and colds — humans have been dealing with them for hundreds if not thousands of years. That’s let us build some population-level protection that we just don’t have for Covid-19, making other factors besides our actions, like the weather, a bit more important for the seasonal viruses.
So down the line, if Covid-19 becomes endemic — a possibility if, for example, immunity to it isn’t as permanent as we’d like — it’s possible that seasons will have a much stronger sway over when it pops up again.
Even then, it’s worth acknowledging that seasons don’t fully determine when the flu and colds hit. As the National Academies pointed out, some flu pandemics have started in the summer: “There have been 10 influenza pandemics in the past 250-plus years — two started in the northern hemisphere winter, three in the spring, two in the summer and three in the fall.”
In fact, some of this research could be taken to mean that coronavirus will be even more dangerous eventually: If the colder, dryer weather this fall and winter empowers the virus, that could lead to a bigger outbreak. The National Academies noted, as an example, that a second spike is typical for flu pandemics: “All had a peak second wave approximately six months after emergence of the virus in the human population, regardless of when the initial introduction occurred.”
But, as is true in the reverse, other factors besides the weather likely play a bigger role in the spread. So if governments and the public do the right thing through the fall and winter, there’s still a good chance that there won’t be a big spike.
Americans will likely be social distancing through the summer
The upshot of all of this: The changing weather likely won’t be enough on its own to relax social distancing. Given that there’s still a lot about Covid-19 we still need to learn, experts don’t know this for certain. But it’s what they suspect, based on the data that we’ve seen in the research and real world so far.
“If the only concern is the health of people, it’s irresponsible to go back to relaxing social distancing anytime soon,” Santillana said. “We’re not done, even if summer starts.”
So as the plans to end social distancing indicate, the world will likely need at least some level of social distancing until a vaccine or a similarly effective medical treatment is developed, which is possibly a year or more away. That may not require the full lockdown that several states are seeing today, but it will mean restrictions on larger gatherings and some travel, while perhaps continuing remote learning and work.
Weather could help determine how safe it is to go outside, even as social distancing continues. Some states, for example, are considering opening parks and beaches during the earlier phases of reopening their economies. Experts warn that summer weather won’t allow large gatherings — 50 people or more is often cited as way too many — but it could give people some assurance that they can go outdoors as long as they keep 6 feet or more of distance from others they don’t live with, avoid touching surfaces and their faces, and wear masks.
Otherwise, however, how much social distancing will be relaxed in the coming months won’t come down to the weather but likely how much the US improves its testing and surveillance capacity. Testing gives officials the means to isolate sick people, track and quarantine the people whom those verified to be sick came into close contact with (a.k.a. contact tracing), and deploy community-wide efforts if a new cluster of cases is too large and uncontrolled otherwise.
While the US has seen some gains in testing, the number of new tests a day still fall below estimates of what’s needed (500,000 on the low end and tens of millions on the high end) to safely ease social distancing.
Along with testing, America will need aggressive contact tracing, as countries like South Korea and Germany have done, to control its outbreak. A report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and Association of State and Territorial Health estimated the US will need to hire 100,000 contact tracers — far above what states and federal officials have so far said they’re hiring. A phone app could help mitigate the need for quite as many tracers, but it’s unclear if Americans have the appetite for an app that will effectively track their every move.
These are, really, the things everyone has been hearing about the entire time during this pandemic. It’s just worth emphasizing that the summer weather likely won’t be enough on its own to mitigate the need for these other public health strategies.
“The best-case scenario is if we’re doing that [social distancing] and there’s a dampening [in the summer], maybe there is a possibility of limiting this virus here in the United States and other places,” Jesse Bell, one of the University of Nebraska Medical Center researchers, told me. “But then again we just don’t know.”
So we’re very likely going to need social distancing, testing, and contact tracing for the foreseeable future, regardless of how warm, sunny, and humid it is outside.
What you need to know about the COVID-19 vaccine
Humankind has never had a more urgent task than creating broad immunity for coronavirus.
One of the questions I get asked the most these days is when the world will be able to go back to the way things were in December before the coronavirus pandemic. My answer is always the same: when we have an almost perfect drug to treat COVID-19, or when almost every person on the planet has been vaccinated against coronavirus.
The former is unlikely to happen anytime soon. We’d need a miracle treatment that was at least 95 percent effective to stop the outbreak. Most of the drug candidates right now are nowhere near that powerful. They could save a lot of lives, but they aren’t enough to get us back to normal.
Which leaves us with a vaccine.
Humankind has never had a more urgent task than creating broad immunity for coronavirus. Realistically, if we’re going to return to normal, we need to develop a safe, effective vaccine. We need to make billions of doses, we need to get them out to every part of the world, and we need all of this happen as quickly as possible.
That sounds daunting, because it is. Our foundation is the biggest funder of vaccines in the world, and this effort dwarfs anything we’ve ever worked on before. It’s going to require a global cooperative effort like the world has never seen. But I know it’ll get done. There’s simply no alternative.
Here’s what you need to know about the race to create a COVID-19 vaccine.
The world is creating this vaccine on a historically fast timeline.
Dr. Anthony Fauci has said he thinks it’ll take around eighteen months to develop a coronavirus vaccine. I agree with him, though it could be as little as 9 months or as long as two years.
Although eighteen months might sound like a long time, this would be the fastest scientists have created a new vaccine. Development usually takes around five years. Once you pick a disease to target, you have to create the vaccine and test it on animals. Then you begin testing for safety and efficacy in humans.
Safety and efficacy are the two most important goals for every vaccine. Safety is exactly what it sounds like: is the vaccine safe to give to people? Some minor side effects (like a mild fever or injection site pain) can be acceptable, but you don’t want to inoculate people with something that makes them sick.
Efficacy measures how well the vaccine protects you from getting sick. Although you’d ideally want a vaccine to have 100 percent efficacy, many don’t. For example, this year’s flu vaccine is around 45 percent effective.
To test for safety and efficacy, every vaccine goes through three phases of trials:
- Phase one is the safety trial. A small group of healthy volunteers gets the vaccine candidate. You try out different dosages to create the strongest immune response at the lowest effective dose without serious side effects.
- Once you’ve settled on a formula, you move onto phase two, which tells you how well the vaccine works in the people who are intended to get it. This time, hundreds of people get the vaccine. This cohort should include people of different ages and health statuses.
- Then, in phase three, you give it to thousands of people. This is usually the longest phase, because it occurs in what’s called “natural disease conditions.” You introduce it to a large group of people who are likely already at the risk of infection by the target pathogen, and then wait and see if the vaccine reduces how many people get sick.
After the vaccine passes all three trial phases, you start building the factories to manufacture it, and it gets submitted to the WHO and various government agencies for approval.
This process works well for most vaccines, but the normal development timeline isn’t good enough right now. Every day we can cut from this process will make a huge difference to the world in terms of saving lives and reducing trillions of dollars in economic damage.
So, to speed up the process, vaccine developers are compressing the timeline. This graphic shows how:
In the traditional process, the steps are sequential to address key questions and unknowns. This can help mitigate financial risk, since creating a new vaccine is expensive. Many candidates fail, which is why companies wait to invest in the next step until they know the previous step was successful.
For COVID-19, financing development is not an issue. Governments and other organizations (including our foundation and an amazing alliance called the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations) have made it clear they will support whatever it takes to find a vaccine. So, scientists are able to save time by doing several of the development steps at once. For example, the private sector, governments, and our foundation are going to start identifying facilities to manufacture different potential vaccines. If some of those facilities end up going unused, that’s okay. It’s a small price to pay for getting ahead on production.
Fortunately, compressing the trial timeline isn’t the only way to take a process that usually takes five years and get it done in 18 months. Another way we’re going to do that is by testing lots of different approaches at the same time.
There are dozens of candidates in the pipeline.
As of April 9, there are 115 different COVID-19 vaccine candidates in the development pipeline. I think that eight to ten of those look particularly promising. (Our foundation is going to keep an eye on all the others to see if we missed any that have some positive characteristics, though.)
The most promising candidates take a variety of approaches to protecting the body against COVID-19. To understand what exactly that means, it’s helpful to remember how the human immune system works.
When a disease pathogen gets into your system, your immune system responds by producing antibodies. These antibodies attach themselves to substances called antigens on the surface of the microbe, which sends a signal to your body to attack. Your immune system keeps a record of every microbe it has ever defeated, so that it can quickly recognize and destroy invaders before they make you ill.
Vaccines circumvent this whole process by teaching your body how to defeat a pathogen without ever getting sick. The two most common types—and the ones you’re probably most familiar with—are inactivated and live vaccines. Inactivated vaccines contain pathogens that have been killed. Live vaccines, on the other hand, are made of living pathogens that have been weakened (or “attenuated”). They’re highly effective but more prone to side effects than their inactivated counterparts.
Inactivated and live vaccines are what we consider “traditional” approaches. There are a number of COVID-19 vaccine candidates of both types, and for good reason: they’re well-established. We know how to test and manufacture them.
The downside is that they’re time-consuming to make. There’s a ton of material in each dose of a vaccine. Most of that material is biological, which means you have to grow it. That takes time, unfortunately.
That’s why I’m particularly excited by two new approaches that some of the candidates are taking: RNA and DNA vaccines. If one of these new approaches pans out, we’ll likely be able to get vaccines out to the whole world much faster. (For the sake of simplicity, I’m only going to explain RNA vaccines. DNA vaccines are similar, just with a different type of genetic material and method of administration.)
Our foundation—both through our own funding and through CEPI—has been supporting the development of an RNA vaccine platform for nearly a decade. We were planning to use it to make vaccines for diseases that affect the poor like malaria, but now it’s looking like one of the most promising options for COVID. The first candidate to start human trials was an RNA vaccine created by a company called Moderna.
Here’s how an RNA vaccine works: rather than injecting a pathogen’s antigen into your body, you instead give the body the genetic code needed to produce that antigen itself. When the antigens appear on the outside of your cells, your immune system attacks them—and learns how to defeat future intruders in the process. You essentially turn your body into its own vaccine manufacturing unit.
Because RNA vaccines let your body do most of the work, they don’t require much material. That makes them much faster to manufacture. There’s a catch, though: we don’t know for sure yet if RNA is a viable platform for vaccines. Since COVID would be the first RNA vaccine out of the gate, we have to prove both that the platform itself works and that it creates immunity. It’s a bit like building your computer system and your first piece of software at the same time.
Even if an RNA vaccine continues to show promise, we still must continue pursuing the other options. We don’t know yet what the COVID-19 vaccine will look like. Until we do, we have to go full steam ahead on as many approaches as possible.
It might not be a perfect vaccine yet—and that’s okay.
The smallpox vaccine is the only vaccine that’s wiped an entire disease off the face of the earth, but it’s also pretty brutal to receive. It left a scar on the arm of anyone who got it. One out of every three people had side effects bad enough to keep them home from school or work. A small—but not insignificant—number developed more serious reactions.
The smallpox vaccine was far from perfect, but it got the job done. The COVID-19 vaccine might be similar.
If we were designing the perfect vaccine, we’d want it to be completely safe and 100 percent effective. It should be a single dose that gives you lifelong protection, and it should be easy to store and transport. I hope the COVID-19 vaccine has all of those qualities, but given the timeline we’re on, it may not.
The two priorities, as I mentioned earlier, are safety and efficacy. Since we might not have time to do multi-year studies, we will have to conduct robust phase 1 safety trials and make sure we have good real-world evidence that the vaccine is completely safe to use.
We have a bit more wiggle room with efficacy. I suspect a vaccine that is at least 70 percent effective will be enough to stop the outbreak. A 60 percent effective vaccine is useable, but we might still see some localized outbreaks. Anything under 60 percent is unlikely to create enough herd immunity to stop the virus.
The big challenge will be making sure the vaccine works well in older people. The older you are, the less effective vaccines are. Your immune system—like the rest of your body—ages and is slower to recognize and attack invaders. That’s a big issue for a COVID-19 vaccine, since older people are the most vulnerable. We need to make sure they’re protected.
The shingles vaccine—which is also targeted to older people—combats this by amping up the strength of the vaccine. It’s possible we do something similar for COVID, although it might come with more side effects. Health authorities could also ask people over a certain age to get an additional dose.
Beyond safety and efficacy, there are a couple other factors to consider:
- How many doses will it be? A vaccine you only get once is easier and quicker to deliver. But we may need a multi-dose vaccine to get enough efficacy.
- How long does it last? Ideally, the vaccine will give you long-lasting protection. But we might end up with one that only stops you from getting sick for a couple months (like the seasonal flu vaccine, which protects you for about six months). If that happens, the short-term vaccine might be used while we work on a more durable one.
- How do you store it? Many common vaccines are kept at 4 degrees C. That’s around the temperature of your average refrigerator, so storage and transportation is easy. But RNA vaccines need to be stored at much colder temperature—as low as -80 degrees C—which will make reaching certain parts of the world more difficult.
My hope is that the vaccine we have 18 months from now is as close to “perfect” as possible. Even if it isn’t, we will continue working to improve it. After that happens, I suspect the COVID-19 vaccine will become part of the routine newborn immunization schedule.
Once we have a vaccine, though, we still have huge problems to solve. That’s because…
We need to manufacture and distribute at least 7 billion doses of the vaccine.
In order to stop the pandemic, we need to make the vaccine available to almost every person on the planet. We’ve never delivered something to every corner of the world before. And, as I mentioned earlier, vaccines are particularly difficult to make and store.
There’s a lot we can’t figure out about manufacturing and distributing the vaccine until we know what exactly we’re working with. For example, will we be able to use existing vaccine factories to make the COVID-19 vaccine?
What we can do now is build different kinds of vaccine factories to prepare. Each vaccine type requires a different kind of factory. We need to be ready with facilities that can make each type, so that we can start manufacturing the final vaccine (or vaccines) as soon as we can. This will cost billions of dollars. Governments need to quickly find a mechanism for making the funding for this available. Our foundation is currently working with CEPI, the WHO, and governments to figure out the financing.
Part of those discussions center on who will get the vaccine when. The reality is that not everyone will be able to get the vaccine at the same time. It’ll take months—or even years—to create 7 billion doses (or possibly 14 billion, if it’s a multi-dose vaccine), and we should start distributing them as soon as the first batch is ready to go.
Most people agree that health workers should get the vaccine first. But who gets it next? Older people? Teachers? Workers in essential jobs?
I think that low-income countries should be some of the first to receive it, because people will be at a much higher risk of dying in those places. COVID-19 will spread much quicker in poor countries because measures like physical distancing are harder to enact. More people have poor underlying health that makes them more vulnerable to complications, and weak health systems will make it harder for them to receive the care they need. Getting the vaccine out in low-income countries could save millions of lives. The good news is we already have an organization with expertise about how to do this in Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
With most vaccines, manufacturers sign a deal with the country where their factories are located, so that country gets first crack at the vaccines. It’s unclear if that’s what will happen here. I hope we find a way to get it out on an equitable basis to the whole world. The WHO and national health authorities will need to develop a distribution plan once we have a better understanding of what we’re working with.
Eventually, though, we’re going to scale this thing up so that the vaccine is available to everyone. And then, we’ll be able to get back to normal—and to hopefully make decisions that prevent us from being in this situation ever again.
It might be a bit hard to see right now, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. We’re doing the right things to get a vaccine as quickly as possible. In the meantime, I urge you to continue following the guidelines set by your local authorities. Our ability to get through this outbreak will depend on everyone doing their part to keep each other safe.
Contact tracing is the next big hurdle in the push to re-open cities
As some states take steps to partially re-open their economies, public health officials and local governments are trying to aggressively ramp up contact tracing to track the spread of COVID-19 in their communities.
Why it matters: If we are indeed in the midst of a war against an invisible enemy, a contact-tracing offensive — launched by both an army of human tracers and an arsenal of technological tools — will be a big part of the key to winning.
- Identifying who has come in contact with people infected with the disease is critical to isolating the coronavirus while also allowing some semblance of daily life to resume.
Between the lines: State and city budgets are being hammered by the economic fallout of COVID-19, making it harder to find the resources to hire and train people to contact trace or acquire needed technologies.
- Some governments are recruiting volunteers, retirees and students to do the work. But the sheer number of people needed — at least 100,000 across the U.S., per Johns Hopkins — and the open-ended duration of the work makes that a very daunting task.
- “We haven’t seen a big push coming from the federal government in either traditional contact tracing or these technology-based approaches,” said Josh Michaud, associate director for Global Health Policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation. “That leaves most of the legwork and decision-making to the states and local authorities.”
State and county public health officials are ramping up tracing efforts now that testing availability is improving — since tracing only works with widespread testing.
- Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker allotted $44 million to an ambitious contact tracing program, which is training 1,000 tracers to staff a virtual call center to track people who came in close contact with those who’ve tested positive for the virus, starting from 48 hours before the symptoms emerged, per the Boston Globe.
- Texas’ Harris County — the nation’s third-most populous county with 4.7 million people, including the city of Houston — this week approved the hire of 300 contact tracers.
“For every case, we have an average of about 20 people to contact. … So if you have 100 cases, you’ve got 2,000 contacts you’ve got to handle for that day because you know the next day you’ll have maybe another 100–150 cases.”
— Umair Shah, executive director of Harris County Public Health
What’s happening: Other countries are relying on tech to varying degrees to augment contact tracing.
- In March, Singapore launched TraceTogether, an app that uses Bluetooth signals to help users learn whether they’ve been in contact with someone who tests positive. More than 1 million people have downloaded it, and Singapore has made it available to other countries.
- Australia said more than a million people downloaded its Bluetooth contact tracing app, based on Singapore’s version, within hours of the government making it available.
- South Korea used phone GPS records, credit card transactions and closed-circuit television to augment patient interviews for its contact tracing effort.
- Iceland claims a 93% success rate of voluntary contact tracing through a smartphone app.
In the U.S., the most likely scenario for widespread, tech-enabled contact tracing lies with work done by Google and Apple.
- The two companies are sharing an early version of what they’re calling COVID-19 exposure notification technology with certain developers working with public health authorities. Apple and Google want to release the first phase of the project, which will enable users to opt-in to Bluetooth-based contact tracing, by mid-May.
- MIT researchers, who launched a project to perform private automated contact tracing, are using their expertise with radar to help figure out how Bluetooth can show the distance between users.
- Marc Zissman, associate head of the Cyber Security and Information Sciences Division at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory, said Google and Apple’s effort appears to be incorporating the privacy principles researchers have called for, including sending randomized data that is not personally identifiable.
- “Our best guess is that when Google and Apple release this, this is going to be what it is,” Zissman said. “There was Betamax and VHS. Everybody was using Betamax. And then every company but Sony went with VHS, and that was it. And then Betamax just stopped being used. That’s kind of like what’s going to happen here I think in the United States.”
The success of the effort will depend on widespread adoption of the technology so people will be notified when they come in contact with someone who tests positive.
- Yes, but: Nearly 3 in 5 Americans say they are unable or unwilling to participate in the Google-Apple initiative, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll.
What to watch: Zissman said MIT researchers will reverse engineer the Google/Apple programs to ensure they are following the privacy protocols, and also expect pilot testing in limited settings like hospitals or universities before states begin implementing.
- It may also take a public service campaign featuring trusted voices to encourage Americans to opt in.
- “There’s a lot of doubts, one, that people’s privacy concerns can be addressed sufficiently and, two, that enough people would download the app to make it helpful and actually provide the service it’s supposed to provide,” Michaud said.
Iowa tells workers to return to their jobs or lose unemployment benefits, despite warnings that reopening could lead to a 2nd wave of infections
- Iowa is preparing to partially reopen 77 counties on Friday.
- The state said furloughed employees who refuse to return to work that they would lose their unemployment benefits — and Gov. Kim Reynolds said it could disqualify them from future unemployment benefits.
- However, a group of experts advised the governor last week not to loosen restrictions and said the state has not reached its peak of infections and deaths.
As Iowa prepares to partially reopen on Friday, the state has told furloughed workers that they will lose their unemployment benefits if they refuse to return to work.
The Des Moines Register reported that businesses like restaurants, bars, retail stores, and fitness centers would be allowed to reopen at half capacity starting on May 1. Gov. Kim Reynolds said the 77 reopening counties either have no cases or are on a downward trend.
Iowa Workforce Development, a state agency that provides employment services for individual workers, said an employee’s refusal return to work out of fear would be considered a “voluntary quit” — which would mean they could no longer receive unemployment benefits. The announcement applies to workers across the state.
Ryan West, the deputy director of Iowa Workforce Development, told Radio Iowa that there were some exceptions, such as workers diagnosed with COVID-19.
The Iowa Workforce Development website prompts employers to fill out what it calls a Job Offer Decline Form for employees who refuse to return to work. The governor has said that opting not to go back to work could disqualify employees from future unemployment benefits.
Business Insider’s Andy Kiersz reported that 232,913 Iowans filed for unemployment between March 15 and April 18, which is 13.5% of the state’s labor force.
Last week, seven epidemiology and biostatistics professors from the University of Iowa advised the governor not to loosen social-distancing restrictions, KWWL reported. They wrote a research paper for the governor after they were commissioned by the Iowa Department of Public Health.
“We observe a huge range of possible outcomes, from relatively low fatalities to catastrophic loss of life,” the paper said.
The scientists said there was still “considerable uncertainty” over how many deaths the state may eventually have; the projections range from 150 to over 10,000 deaths.
“We have found evidence of a slowdown in infection and mortality rates due to social distancing policies, but not that a peak has been reached,” the paper said. The professors said that did not mean measures should be eased: “Therefore, prevention measures should remain in place. Without such measures being continued, a second wave of infections is likely.”
We Work on the Front Lines of COVID-19. Here’s What Hospitals Should Do
A game plan from ground zero.
It’s only a matter of time before all of us are directly affected by COVID-19. Proper preparation is the only way to ensure high-quality patient care and staff well-being in this challenging time. Having collectively spent time caring for patients at two different tertiary care facilities in New York on the medical floors and intensive care units, common themes are emerging that represent opportunities for hospitals in other parts of the country to start taking action before COVID-19 patients start filling up beds en masse.
Staffing
It takes a LOT of people to care for a COVID-19 onslaught; mapping out different staffing scenarios in the event you have 40 or 400 COVID patients is imperative. Staffing needs for COVID patients are higher than normal because of the patients’ complex medical needs — many require ICU level nursing and respiratory therapists — and because both clinical and non-clinical staff will inevitably become sick and need to be taken out of work. Staff should be screened for symptoms and high-risk contacts; those who are symptomatic should be proactively encouraged to stay home instead of showing up to work not feeling well and putting other care team members and patients at risk. This requires back-up staffing plans to fill in when your people become sick. Shutting down non-urgent and elective departments provides staffing redundancy to pull from when needed. All employees should be given advance notice about staffing plans so that potential role changes are clear.
Testing
Robust testing processes for both patients and your healthcare workforce are critical for success. Hospitals should be taking this time to obtain in-house rapid testing kits to avoid unnecessary patient isolation and conserve personal protective equipment (PPE) while waiting for test results.
Healthcare workers are understandably scared about contracting COVID-19 themselves and giving it to their family members. We recommend all staff members be tested for active infection so that those who are infected can be proactively quarantined.
Forward-thinking institutions should be prioritizing antibody testing for healthcare workers. While this testing is still in its infancy, it is quite likely that those with strong antibodies to COVID-19 possess some degree of immunity. Therefore, if you can identify which doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, physical therapists, and janitorial staff have already developed an immune response to COVID-19, these staff members can take priority staffing infected units with the goal of reducing the number of new infections in healthcare workers and limiting exposure to those who have yet to contract the virus.
Communication
Each institution’s COVID-19 protocols and policies change rapidly as we learn more about the virus. How you communicate these ever-changing procedures with staff is critical. Most hospitals rely on daily email updates that are text-heavy; however, overwhelmed inboxes and less time with devices while wearing PPE limits the success of email as a sole communication channel.
Communication through graphics takes on new importance — signage noting changes in hospital geography, large pictures of donning and doffing instructions, phone numbers to call with equipment shortages, and clear instructions to staff about testing protocols, isolation, and removing patients from isolation need to be conveniently placed where staff can access information in real time without consulting their electronic devices. High-yield locations for just-in-time visual communication include outside patient rooms, nursing stations, break rooms, and elevators, so that the target information reaches its busy, hard-working audience successfully and repeatedly, minimizing confusion and augmenting clarity.
Limiting the Need to Enter the Room
Given ongoing PPE shortages, particularly around single-use gowns and N95 masks, minimizing the number of instances that staff, particularly nurses, need to enter the room is critical. This requires an adjustment from normal patient care. We recommend extension tubing to bring IV poles and medications outside the room. Tablets such as iPads can permit video calls with patients to check on non-urgent items. Centralized monitoring of oxygen saturations for all admitted patients can minimize the frequency of supplemental oxygen adjustment.
Similarly, given the increased risk of COVID-19 in diabetic patients, continuous blood glucose monitoring can minimize the need for frequent manual fingerstick measurements for patients receiving supplemental insulin.
Discharge Planning
Discharging patients to home or rehabilitation facilities presents novel challenges. A home discharge requires education, equipment, and follow-up. Education on home monitoring of vitals signs like oxygen saturation and blood pressure with instructions on critical values that should prompt patients to return to the hospital can expedite discharge and open hospital beds for other sick patients. Both patients and family members must also be educated on quarantine procedures to limit household transmission.
Many patients will have temporary oxygen requirements and we have seen home oxygen shortages in our areas. Coordinating a strategy with your outpatient clinicians, home oxygen suppliers, and insurance companies can facilitate getting patients home sooner on home oxygen and freeing up beds for sicker patients. Further, many patients are eager to go home earlier since hospital visitation limitations mean they’re sitting in bed alone away from family and the more a hospital can do to safely discharge patients home with appropriate supplies and follow-up will be beneficial to both patients and the hospital.
Hospitals must also be prepared to integrate these patients into their existing telehealth infrastructure, which has become the mainstay of ambulatory medicine in lieu of traditional office visits. For many patients, this will be a new way of accessing care. Prior to discharge, hospital staff should ensure patients have downloaded the necessary apps with login information and feel comfortable they will be able to follow up with their physician using technology following discharge.
There is a huge opportunity for hospitals that have not been caring for large numbers of COVID-19 patients to prepare ahead of time in a manner that optimizes patient care and minimizes risks to staff. Those of us on the early front lines have learned many of these lessons the hard way. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure — we encourage all healthcare systems to take action before the storm comes.
U.S. Coronavirus Cases Passes 1 Million–A Third Of All Cases Globally
TOPLINE
Confirmed cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus passed 1 million in the United States Tuesday, making up a third of all global cases, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
KEY FACTS
Of the 1,002,498 Americans who have been confirmed to have contracted the disease, 57,266 have died while 112,315 have recovered.
The new milestone comes as some states announce plans for reopening, something President Trump has been adamantly pushing for as 26 million Americans lose their jobs during the pandemic.
New York, the epicenter of the outbreak with 295,106 cases, saw its hospital admittance number drop below 1,000 for the first time in a month on Monday, with Governor Andrew Cuomo detailing a plan to start easing stay-at-home restrictions in parts of the state starting as early as May 15.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, however, with the state’s 24,604 cases, has drawn criticism from health officials and even Trump for allowing businesses like restaurants, hair salons and gyms to reopen before seeing a sustained reduction in cases.
Around 5.6 million people, or about 1.7% of the population, have been tested for the coronavirus, but researchers at Harvard Global Health Institute report that the country will need to perform 3.5 million tests per week at minimum before reopening.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease doctor, warned Tuesday during an interview that “it’s inevitable that we will have a return of the virus,” and that states reopening prematurely could cause “a rebound to get us right back in the same boat that we were in a few weeks ago.”
BIG NUMBER
87%. That’s how many Americans support current social distancing restrictions, or even want stronger measures in place, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey conducted from April 16-20.
KEY BACKGROUND
The U.S. reached 500,000 cases on April 10 and 100,000 on March 27. The model prefered by the federal government increased the projected death count from the coronavirus for the second time in a week on Tuesday, now projecting 74,000 total deaths from the virus.
TANGENT
Germany has been a leader in mitigating the spread of the coronavirus, but after easing some lockdown restrictions this past week, the country saw an uptick in infection rate.
216 hospitals furloughing workers in response to COVID-19
Many U.S. hospitals and health systems have suspended elective procedures to save capacity, supplies and staff to treat COVID-19 patients.
As a result of suspending these nonemergent procedures, several systems have lost or expect to lose a large chunk of their annual revenue, forcing them to make cost reduction a top priority.
Below is a breakdown of the hospitals that have furloughed staff in an effort to remain financially stable amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
April 29
1. Stamford (Conn.) Health plans to furlough 375 employees to help offset a revenue loss from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Stamford Advocate. The health system said revenue was down $10 million in March, and that loss is expected to hit $27 million in April. The health system has 3,600 employees.
2. Citing a revenue loss of $85 million per month due to the COVID-19 pandemic, University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville, plans to furlough a portion of its staff not involved in direct patient care. The furloughs will last up to three months. Affected employees can retain their health insurance benefits and can use their paid time off to help offset some of the pay loss. The health system also plans to reduce executive and physician compensation.
3. St. Joseph Mercy Health System in Livingston, Mich., has furloughed 50 staff members due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Livingston Daily. The furloughs affected support staff from both of the health systems locations.
4. After exhausting other alternatives to shore up finances amid the pandemic, University of Rochester (N.Y.) Medical Center will begin furloughing employees in May, according to WXXI News. The hospital system hasn’t yet determined the number of employees that will be affected or how long the furlough will last.
5. Citing a patient volume and revenue drop from the COVID-19 pandemic, Coshocton (Ohio) Regional Medical Center has furloughed a portion of its 320 employees, according to the Coshocton Tribune. The furloughs are expected to last until May 31.
6. Willis-Knighton Health System in Shreveport, La., has placed a portion of its staff on unpaid leave. Affected staff worked in areas where the health system found a lower or nonexistent demand for services. In a statement provided to Becker’s Hospital Review, Chief Administrative Officer Brian Crawford said the state’s directive to curb non-emergent procedures and the effects of the pandemic left about half of the services provided by Willis-Knighton significantly reduced or halted.
7. Henderson, Ky.-based Methodist Health plans to furlough 50 employees due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to WEHT. The health system said patient volumes have been gravely affected by the state ban on non-emergent procedures.
April 28
1. To help minimize the financial hit from the COVID-19 pandemic, St. Louis-based SSM Health plans to furlough 2,000 employees. The furloughs, expected to last at least 13 weeks, will affect about 5 percent of the health system’s workforce. The health system said it also plans to place more workers on partial furlough or reduce their hours. Affected employees can apply for federal and state unemployment.
2. Bethel, Alaska-based Yukon-Kuskokwim Health will furlough, lay off or reduce hours of 300 workers to help offset a revenue loss attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Alaska Public Radio. The cuts and furloughs will occur across four categories: workers who are immediately laid off, workers who are furloughed, workers who volunteer for furlough and workers who have their hours cut by 50 percent. The health system employs about 1,400 people.
3. Citing a projected $100 million shortfall in revenue from March through June due to the pandemic, Rancho Mirage, Calif.-based Eisenhower Health has furloughed a portion of its staff, according to The Desert Sun. About 30 to 35 employees have been fully furloughed and others have been partially furloughed with reduced hours.
4. Washington, Ind.-based Daviess Community Hospital has furloughed a portion of its staff to help stabilize its financial position after a revenue loss caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Washington Times Herald. Affected employees can retain their benefits and have the opportunity to apply for unemployment. The furloughs will be reevaluated after 30 days.
5. University of Vermont Health System in Burlington has furloughed a few hundred employees due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to NBC affiliate NECN. About 70 of the affected staffers were reassigned to different roles within the health system. The exact number of furloughed employees was not disclosed.
6. Citing a 40 percent reduction in patient volume and a resulting revenue drop, Memphis, Tenn.-based Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare has furloughed a portion of its staff, according to the Daily Memphian. Some of the employees volunteered to take furloughs. Employees will still have health insurance benefits.
7. Palm Springs, Calif.-based Desert Regional Medical Center has furloughed an undisclosed number of employees because of a patient volume drop amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to The Desert Sun.
8. Oceanside, Calif.-based Tri-City Medical Center has sent layoff or furlough notices to 24 nurses amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Voice of San Diego.
April 27
1. Citing a revenue loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Jackson-based West Tennessee Healthcare has furloughed 1,100 individuals of its 7,000-person workforce. The health system said it lost $18 million in March due to the statewide ban on elective procedures that went into effect March 23. To comply with the order, the health system temporarily shut down some hospital departments as well as its outpatient surgery center.
2. Annapolis, Md.-based Anne Arundel Medical Center has furloughed 1,000 employees due to low patient volume and other financial challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. All furloughed employees received 80 hours of pay and are able to retain their benefits through June 30. The medical center said it plans to redeploy some of the furloughed workers to support an anticipated COVID-19 surge.
3. Lexington, Ky.-based UK Healthcare has furloughed 1,500 employees to help offset a COVID-19-related revenue loss, according to Kentucky.com. The health system said it has seen a drop in the number of services offered after elective procedures were canceled statewide in March. The health system said earlier in April it planned to place some employees on unpaid leave after April 25 if the pandemic continued to affect operations.
4. St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua, N.H., has furloughed 300 employees due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to WMUR. The furloughs affect about 20 percent of the hospital’s employees. In March, the hospital said it lost $3.6 million in revenue, a number expected to double by the end of April.
5. Citing a financial hit from the COVID-19 pandemic, Fresno, Calif.-based St. Agnes Medical Center has furloughed 175 employees, according to ABC affiliate KFSN. The hospital said it has seen a large drop in the number of elective surgeries and emergency room visits during the pandemic. Affected employees are able to retain healthcare benefits.
6. Pikeville (Ky.) Medical Center has furloughed more than 200 employees amid mounting financial pressure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to WCHS TV. The medical center said that the furloughs are necessary because it is predicting a “significant historical financial loss for April.” The furloughs took effect April 26.
7. In an effort to offset financial losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cody (Wyo.) Regional Health said it is furloughing a portion of its nonclinical staff, according to The Cody Enterprise. The health system said the furloughs will last at least two months. Since the crisis began, Cody Regional Health’s revenue has been down 60 percent, according to the report.
8. Citing a decrease in patient volume and revenue, Mobile, Ala.-based Infirmary Health has furloughed a portion of its staff, according to NBC 15. Affected employees will retain their healthcare benefits.
9. Show Low, Ariz.-based Summit Healthcare, projecting a revenue decrease of 40 percent to 50 percent due to COVID-19, is asking employees to voluntarily take furloughs, according to the White Mountain Independent. The hospital system said that the state ban on elective surgeries has significantly reduced workloads and volumes. The voluntary furloughs would begin May 2 and last 90 days.
“Furloughing allows us to retain talent while providing limited benefits,” Summit Healthcare CEO Ron McArthur told the publication.
10. Dalles, Ore.-based Mid-Columbia Medical Center plans to furlough employees beginning May 3 in an effort to help offset losses attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to The Dalles Chronicle. The furloughs will affect departments that are not seeing a high patient volume.
11. Due to a revenue loss from the COVID-19 pandemic, Stanford (Calif.) Health Care employees have the option to take a 20 percent pay cut, using paid time off, or taking a furlough, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Employees must use one of those options between April 27 and July 4.
April 24
1. HealthPartners will furlough 2,600 workers in an effort to help offset the financial hit from the COVID-19 pandemic, the seven-hospital system in Bloomington, Minn., said April 23. The furloughs, made because the pandemic caused an “immediate and significant decrease in revenue,” affect about 10 percent of its workforce. The furloughs will take place in areas where the organization has stopped, slowed or deferred work temporarily.
2. Citing financial challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Buffalo, N.Y.-based Catholic Health plans to furlough up to 1,200 employees, according to WKBW. The furloughs will affect management and non-management positions. They will begin April 26 and will be reevaluated after 30 days. Affected employees will retain health benefits and can apply for unemployment.
3. Kansas City, Mo.-based Children’s Mercy will furlough 575 employees for up to 60 days, according to KCTV 5. The furloughs will take effect April 26. Hospital officials said the furloughs are an effort to help offset fiscal losses attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic.
4. Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital in Grand Rapids, Mich., has furloughed 20 percent of its employees due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to WOOD TV. The furloughs will affect about 400 staffers. Furloughed employees have access to health and life insurance through June 30.
5. Maryville, Tenn.-based Blount Memorial Hospital has furloughed 211 employees due to low patient volume amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to The Daily Times.
6. Citing a loss of $10 million per month due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Chicago-based Sinai Health System plans to lay off 24 nonclinical employees, furlough about 150 caregivers and cut hours for another 200 employees, according to Crain’s Chicago Business. The four-hospital system said it plans to call 200 furloughed employees back to work in 60 days.
7. After suffering a steep financial loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bangor, Maine-based St. Joseph Healthcare has furloughed 100 of its 1,200 employees, according to The Bangor Daily News. St. Joseph said it ended March with an operating loss of $4 million and expects a bigger hit in April. The majority of affected staff volunteered to take a furlough.
8. Laurinburg, N.C.-based Scotland Health Care System will furlough nearly 70 employees through June 30, according to The Laurinburg Exchange. Most affected employees work in nonclinical roles, though some front-line staff were furloughed. The health system said the furloughs were necessary given the drop in patient volume and revenue caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
9. Citing a slowdown in elective procedures and a resulting revenue drop, St. Paul, Minn.-based Regions Hospital plans to furlough about 30 employees, according to the Pioneer Press. The affected employees include nurses, physicians, lab techs and other emergency room staffers.
10. Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Wake Forest Baptist Health plans to furlough a portion of its leadership and administrative staff as early as next week, according to The Winston-Salem Journal. The furlough period would last 16 weeks. It is unclear how many employees will be affected.
April 23
1. Detroit-based Henry Ford Health System plans to furlough 2,800 staffers not directly involved in patient care due to financial damage from the COVID-19 pandemic. The six-hospital system recorded a $43 million loss in operating income in March due to the cancellation of elective procedures, temporary clinic closures and the additional expenses of acquiring personal protective gear. The health system expects bigger losses in April and May.
2. Citing a financial hit from the COVID-19 pandemic, Providence, R.I.-based Lifespan has furloughed about 1,100 employees, according to The Providence Journal. A hospital spokesperson said most of the furloughs were taken voluntarily, and some employees have been able to take vacation or sick leave to maintain pay. Affected employees can retain their benefits, such as health insurance.
3. Woodbury, N.J.-based Inspira Health has furloughed 219 employees due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal. The list of furloughed employees will be reviewed every two weeks, the health system said. Inspira has about 6,000 employees.
4. Macomb, Ill.-based McDonough District Hospital plans to furlough 60 workers amid declining revenue from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to local radio station WGIL. The health system experienced a $1.2 million loss in net revenue in March, and expects April to have a much larger loss.
5. To address the financial impact and patient volume dip caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Greenville, N.C.-based Vidant Health will furlough a portion of its workforce, according to ABC 12. The health system will start the furloughs April 26. The number of affected employees was not disclosed.
6. Olean, N.Y.-based Upper Allegheny Health System plans to start a voluntary furlough program in an effort to help offset some of the losses from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Tap Into Greater Olean. The system projects it will incur a $25 million loss related to COVID-19 in 2020.
7. Due to the suspension of elective procedures and subsequent revenue drop, Grand Forks, N.D.-based Altru Health System plans to reduce the number staffing hours by 10 percent to 15 percent through furloughs and a system-required absence program, according to The Grand Forks Herald. The hospital system said it is facing a potential loss of $65 million this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
8. Cleveland-based University Hospital plans to cut the hours and pay of 4,100 employees not involved in patient care, according to Cleveland.com. Salaried nonclinical staffers are required to take a one-week unpaid furlough every five weeks. Hourly nonclinical workers will have their hours cut by 20 percent each week. Affected employees can use paid time off and sick time during those unpaid weeks. Hospital staff will still receive benefits, like health insurance.
9. Citing the financial hit from COVID-19, Wausau, Wis.-based Aspirus Health plans to furlough a portion of its staff beginning May 1, according to a system press release. The furloughs will primarily affect employees who do not work directly in patient care.
“This is the most difficult decision our leadership team has ever made,” said Aspirus President and CEO Matthew Heywood. “These drastic actions are ones we hoped to avoid but must take to ensure we can continue to serve our communities throughout this pandemic and for generations after.”
10. To help protect the long-term financial health of the organization, Buffalo, N.Y.-based Kaleida Health is offering a temporary voluntary furlough program for its staff, the health system announced April 22 in a news release. The furlough program is a joint agreement with two unions that represent 8,000 Kaleida Health employees. Affected employees would be able to retain benefits, like health insurance.
Note: Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic said April 22 that 30,000 staff members will be affected by furloughs or cut hours. More information about the furloughs are listed under April 13, or you can click here.
April 22
1. Southfield, Mich.-based Beaumont Health will permanently lay off 450 staff members, cut executive pay and furlough 2,475 workers due to the financial hit from the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the 450 layoffs affect corporate staff or administrative employees. The furloughs affect staff not directly caring for patients and hospital administrative staff.
2. Philadelphia-based Tower Health has furloughed at least 1,000 employees due to the financial hit from the COVID-19 pandemic. The furloughs affect roughly 7 percent of the system’s 14,000-person workforce.The seven-hospital system said it has lost about 50 percent of its revenue due to the suspension of elective procedures and drop in outpatient volume.
3. Citing the suspension of elective procedures and a 50 percent reduction in revenue, Kalamazoo, Mich.-based Bronson Healthcare has furloughed hundreds, according to WWMT. Furloughed employees will not be paid for at least four months, and they can not use paid time off. The number of furloughed employees was not disclosed.
4. Utica, N.Y.-based Mohawk Valley Health System will furlough about 20 percent of its workforce of 4,000 for up to four months, according to the Utica Observer-Dispatch. The health system said it is part of a cost-cutting plan to recover from lost revenue caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
5. About 200 employees at Ithaca, N.Y.-based Cayuga Medical Center have volunteered to take a furlough, according to Ithaca.com. The hospital, which employs 1,500, has seen a 50 percent drop in patient volume. Employees that opt into the furlough program can retain health insurance, apply for unemployment benefits and will receive a stipend upon returning to work.
6. Hudson, N.Y.-based Columbia Memorial Hospital will furlough 125 workers due to a drop in patient volume and revenue caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to News 10, an ABC affiliate. Furloughed workers can keep their health insurance and apply for unemployment benefits.
7. St. Mary’s Health System in Lewiston, Maine, will furlough about 5 percent of its workforce to help offset losses attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Sun Journal. The furloughs, which affect 77 staffers, will begin April 27 and last for 30 days.
8. Seventy-one employees from Bay Area Hospital in Coos Bay, Ore., opted to take voluntarily furloughs, according to KCBY. The employees will be furloughed for 45 days.
9. Rosemont, Ill.-based Pipeline Health, which operates Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago and West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, Ill., has furloughed an undisclosed number of its staff due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Chicago Tribune. Those employees will keep their health insurance and can apply for unemployment.
10. Citing a revenue decline of 50 percent due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dansville, N.Y.-based Noyes Health has furloughed a portion of its staff for one to two week on a rolling basis, according to The Livingston County News. Furloughed staff will retain health insurance benefits.
11. Madison, Wis.-based UW Health plans to furlough some staff due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Wisconsin State Journal. UW Health CEO Alan Kaplan, MD, said UW Health saw a 62 percent decline in surgeries and patient volume, and as a result is expecting losses of $350 to $400 million between March 15 and June 30.
12. West Des Moines, Iowa-based UnityPoint Health said it will implement furloughs starting April 26, according to 25 News, an NBC affiliate. Furloughs will affect employees in areas of the system that are not operating at capacity or experiencing closures.
13. Gottlieb Memorial Hospital in Melrose Park, Ill., has furloughed some staff in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Chicago Tribune.
14. MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn, Ill., has furloughed some staff in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Chicago Tribune.
April 21
1. Phoenix-based Banner Health plans to furlough 5 percent to 7 percent of its workforce in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some affected employees may be furloughed for just a few weeks. Affected employees will still have benefits, like health insurance.
2. Citing the suspension of elective procedures, Ogdensburg, N.Y.-based Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center has furloughed or cut pay for 170 workers, according to WWNY TV. The furloughed employees will not be paid.
3. Rochester, Minn.-based Olmsted Medical Center, which employs 1,300 people, plans to furlough a portion of its staff to offset the financial hit caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to ABC 6 News. The medical center is projecting a loss of nearly $25 million for April through June due to the suspension of elective procedures.
4. Myrtue Medical Center, a Harlan, Iowa-based hospital with 422 employees, has furloughed a portion of its workforce due to a revenue drop from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to HarlanOnline.com. The hospital said that the pandemic has caused a nearly 50 percent drop in procedures, visits and overall patient volumes.
5. Hutchinson (Kan.) Regional Healthcare System, experiencing financial strain from the COVID-19 pandemic, plans to furlough staff, according to The Hutchinson News. The system said the furloughs will affect employees at each of its facilities, but declined to discuss the number of employees that will be furloughed.
6. Poteau-based Eastern Oklahoma Medical Center, a 25-bed critical access hospital, has furloughed 52 employees, according to Erie News Now. The hospital said that suspending non-emergent procedures has caused a dip in patient volume and revenue.
7. Citing a revenue loss from the COVID-19 pandemic and suspension of elective procedures, Framingham, Mass.-based MetroWest Medical Center has furloughed an undisclosed number of nurses, according to The Milford Daily News.
April 20
1. Citing the financial burden caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Carthage (N.Y.) Area Hospital has furloughed 20 percent of its staff, according to local news station WWNY TV. About 83 staff members are affected. Furloughed employees with health insurance can still receive those benefits.
2. Sioux Falls, Idaho-based Avera Health will furlough 650 workers due to the suspension of elective procedures and resulting revenue loss, according to The Grand Forks Herald. Avera will also cut pay for 1,500 employees. The health system has 19,000 employees across a five-state region.
3. St. Lawrence Health System, a three-hospital system in Potsdam, N.Y., plans to furlough at least 400 workers to help offset the revenue loss caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to North Country Now. Due to a drop in patient volume due to the suspension of elective procedures, the system is projecting a cash flow decrease of $10 million in the next 30 days. The health system’s website says it has more than 2,025 employees.
4. Rapid City, S.D.-based Monument Health will place 200 employees on furlough, according to KOTA TV. The health system said that it implemented furloughs to help preserve protective gear and save costs after suspending elective surgeries. The furloughs, which are effective April 25, affect 4 percent of Monument Health’s workforce.
5. In an effort to offset a revenue loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Niagara Falls (N.Y.) Memorial Hospital has furloughed 52 workers, according to WKBW.
6. Elizabethtown (N.Y.) Community Hospital has furloughed 25 staff members after experiencing a revenue cut of 50 percent due to the suspension of elective procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Adirondack Daily Enterprise.
7. Manatee Memorial Hospital, a safety-net facility in Bradenton, Fla., has furloughed a portion of its staff due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Bradenton.com. Affected employees will be able to retain health and life insurance. It is unclear how many staff members are affected or how long the furlough will last.
8. Tucson (Ariz.) Medical Center has furloughed some of its staff to help offset a revenue loss caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Tucson.com. The health system said it is estimating a revenue loss of $20 million in April alone.
9. Tucson, Ariz.-based Carondelet Health Network has implemented furloughs across the system due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Tucson.com.
10. Gillette, Wyo.-based Campbell County Health has furloughed an undisclosed number of employees, according to The Gillette News Record. Affected employees are eligible to retain their health insurance and are expected to return to work within six to 12 weeks, according to the report.
April 17
1. Citing declines in revenue and patient volume due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Murray (Ky.) Calloway County Hospital plans to implement furloughs in all departments, according to local news station WPSD. The hospital said the reductions will affect about 15 percent to 30 percent of staff in each department, according to the report.
2. Lockport, N.Y.-based Eastern Niagara Hospital will furlough 60 employees in response to the suspension of elective procedures due to the pandemic, according to Buffalo, N.Y., ABC affiliate WKBW. The furloughs affect union and nonunion employees.
3. Lowville, N.Y.-based Lewis County Health System is temporarily placing 14 percent of its workforce on unpaid leave due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to WWYN. The health system will ask for volunteers before furloughs will be mandated based on seniority. Furloughs are expected to last eight weeks.
4. Citing a financial hit from the suspension of elective procedures, Traverse City, Mich.-based Munson Healthcare is furloughing a portion of its staff, according to 9&10 News. Ed Ness, president and CEO of Munson Healthcare, told the CBS affiliate that the health system is projected to lose $7 million to $10 million a month.
5. Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital, based in Chicago, has furloughed about 20 percent of its staff through the end of April, according to the Chicago Tribune. Those staff members are still receiving pay and healthcare benefits. The hospital said it is losing about $10 million a week because it suspended elective surgeries and outpatient visits and is seeing a drop in inpatient visits.
6. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Maywood, Ill.-based Loyola Medicine has furloughed primarily nonclinical staff and reduced hours for other employees, according to the Chicago Tribune. Furloughed workers are still receiving healthcare benefits.
“We hope to bring back as many furloughed employees as we can, when possible,” Loyola told the newspaper.
7. Citing a revenue drop from the COVID-19 pandemic, Somerset, Ky.-based Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital has 17 percent of its workforce on furlough, according to the Commonwealth Journal. Affected employees will continue to receive health insurance and 25 percent of their wages.
8. Aiken (S.C.) Regional Medical Centers will furlough 54 employees in an effort to offset revenue losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to WJBF. Affected employees will be eligible for unemployment.
9. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its business operations, Boston-based Fenway Health will furlough a portion of its staff this week, according to The Rainbow Times.
“This is not something we are doing lightly. But Fenway Health is not immune to the economic forces affecting every health care system in the state in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis,” Fenway Health CEO Ellen LaPointe, told the publication. “These measures are temporary.”
10. El Paso, Texas-based Hospitals of Providence will furlough a portion of its staff to help offset a drop in patient volume, according to El Paso Times. Hospitals of Providence said that less than 3 percent of staff would be affected.
11. Jacksboro, Texas-based Faith Community Health System has furloughed, cut hours or reassigned about 75 percent of its staff due to the suspension of elective procedures, according to The Dallas Morning News.
“Where larger hospitals might have the ability to sustain that loss of revenue, rural hospitals just don’t. It has hit us faster and harder,” Faith Community CEO Frank Beaman told the publication.
April 16
1. Samaritan Medical Center in Watertown, N.Y., will furlough 10 percent of its 2,400 employee workforce due to a revenue loss stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to NNY360. The medical center expects the furloughs to last about three months.
2. In an effort to ensure the long-term financial stability of the organization, DuBois, Pa.-based Penn Highlands Healthcare has furloughed or laid off 600 employees, according to The Progress News. About 60 percent of the 600 affected staff were furloughed. The health system has seen its revenue dip about 40 percent due to the suspension of elective procedures.
3. New Bedford, N.H.-based SolutionHealth, which includes Manchester, N.H.-based Elliot Hospital System and Nashua-based Southern New Hampshire Health, plans to furlough 650 staff members to offset a revenue hit from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to The Union Leader.
4. Titus Regional Medical Center, a 108-bed facility in Mount Pleasant, Texas, has furloughed about 10 percent of its staff due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to The Texas Tribune. It has about 800 employees. Titus said it expects the virus to cause a financial hit of $3.3 million, or about 14 days of cash.
5. Citing a financial hit from the COVID-19 pandemic, Chillicothe, Ohio-based Adena Health System has furloughed 500 staff members, according to WBNS, a CBS affiliate. The health system is projecting that it will have a deficit of more than $50 million through 2020 due to the suspension of elective procedures.
6. Akron, Ohio-based Summa Health is furloughing 360 employees in an effort to cut costs during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to The Beacon Journal. Summa Health has about 7,200 employees. The furloughs started this week. It is unclear when they will end.
7. Jupiter (Fla.) Medical Center has furloughed 50 workers in administrative and support positions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to The Palm Beach Post. The furloughs affect 2.7 percent of the hospital’s 1,883 employees and are expected to last through the peak of the pandemic.
8. Citing a patient volume and revenue loss from the COVID-19 pandemic, Paragould-based Arkansas Methodist Medical Center plans to furlough a portion of its staff starting April 20, according to local news station KAIT8.
9. Dunn, N.C.-based Harnett Health has furloughed 80 staff members due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, according to My Daily Record.
“We want to reassure our community that we are still here and able to provide care whenever they may need us,” Harnett Health President Cory Hess told the publication. “The restructuring is a direct result of having to temporarily shut down some of our services to reduce the spread of COVID-19.”
10. Citing a revenue dip due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Pocatello, Idaho-based Portneuf Medical Center will furlough and lay off a portion of its staff, according to the Idaho State Journal. It is unclear how many staff members were furloughed and laid off. The furloughs are expected to last 90 days, but some employees may be called back earlier.
“To balance the resources needed to care for our sickest patients against the economic impact of postponed visits and the decline in surgeries, we have made some difficult workforce decisions,” a spokesperson for Portneuf Medical Center told the publication.
11. San Francisco-based Dignity Health has furloughed a portion of its nonclinical staff, Laurie Harting, Dignity’s CEO for the Greater Sacramento region, told the Sacramento Business Journal. The number of affected employees was not disclosed.
12. While Sacramento-based Sutter Health has created a labor pool to redeploy and reassign employees, some who are unable to be reassigned have been furloughed, according to the Sacramento Business Journal. Sutter has offered these affected employees 80 hours of “disaster pay” to account for hours lost and is creating a relief fund for employees. It is unclear how many employees are receiving the disaster pay. The health system has not laid off employees.
April 15
1. Citing a decline in elective surgeries and other nonemergent procedures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare has furloughed about 10 percent of its workforce of more than 113,000. Affected employees include those in administrative support roles, corporate office jobs and elective care. Earlier in April, Tenet said it planned to furlough 500 employees, but the health system said it had to raise the number of furloughs after the costly government-mandated suspension of elective procedures.
2. Citing the suspension of elective procedures, Detroit Medical Center is furloughing 480 employees who are not involved in treating COVID-19 patients or other critical patient care, according to Fox Detroit.
3. Lovelace Health System, based in Albuquerque, N.M., plans to furlough or cut hours of about 630 people, according to The Albuquerque Journal. The temporary workforce reduction affects about 15 percent of the health system’s 4,239 employees.
4. Citing a revenue drop of 60 percent due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Rutland City, Vt.-based Rutland Regional Health System has furloughed 150 employees, according to WCAX. The hospital has about 1,200 employees total.
5. Philadelphia-based Einstein Healthcare Network plans to move forward with furloughs due to a significant decline in physician practice and outpatient volume, according to WHYY. Health system officials said they project a $50 million to $60 million hit in 2020. Internal documents revealed that 70 percent of the health system’s expenses are staff related. Einstein Healthcare department heads were instructed to choose which employees to furlough this week.
6. Abbeville (S.C.) Area Medical Center has furloughed or cut hours of 75 employees for at least two months, according to the Index-Journal. Both clinical and nonclinical staff are affected.
“Like many hospital systems across the state and nation, the COVID-19 pandemic has created financial challenges for Abbeville Area Medical Center,” Dean Turner, Abbeville Area Medical Center’s CEO, told the publication. “This was a difficult decision but one that was necessary not only to ensure that our hospital can continue to serve patients, but also to ensure that our employees have jobs to come back to in the next six to eight weeks, if not sooner.”
7. Citing a financial toll from the COVID-19 pandemic, Roanoke, Va.-based Carilion Clinic plans to furlough a portion of its staff, CEO Nancy Agee announced in a video to employees. The number of affected employees has yet to be determined.
8. Jonesboro, Ark.-based St. Bernards Healthcare has furloughed 50 employees due to a significant decline in patient volume and revenue, according to Arkansas Business. The health system said that it is working to help furloughed staff “receive every benefit possible.”
9. In an effort to conserve cash and ensure the future financial stability of the organization, Sedalia, Mo.-based Bothwell Regional Health Center has furloughed 50 staff members, according to KSIS Radio. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a 43 percent reduction in revenue, the hospital said.
10. Queensbury, N.Y.-based Hudson Headwaters Health Network has furloughed 50 employees due to the revenue hit from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to North Country Public Radio.
11. Decatur, Ill.-based HSHS St. Mary’s Hospital is asking employees to take voluntary furloughs due to a decline in patient volume from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to WCIA.
12. Fayetteville, Ark.-based Washington Regional Medical Center is furloughing a portion of its staff to help offset revenue losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to KNWA, a Fox affiliate. The number of furloughs has yet to be determined.
13. In an effort to offset some of the financial losses from the COVID-19 pandemic, Mount Clemens, Mich.-based McLaren Macomb Hospital plans to furlough up to 20 nurses, according to Detroit News.
April 14
1. Kalispell (Mont.) Regional Healthcare will furlough 600 employees in an effort to help offset the financial hit from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to NBC Montana. The health system expects to incur a revenue loss of $16 million per month due to the suspension of elective procedures.
“The compounding effect of the loss of patient volumes, cancellation of elective surgeries, and the closure of entire service lines has had a tremendous financial impact on KRH,” Craig Lambrecht, MD, Kalispell Regional president and CEO, told the publication. “Cost cutting efforts have been underway but unfortunately those efforts alone cannot remedy the significance of these losses.”
2. UT Health East Texas in Tyler has furloughed or reduced hours of about 10 percent of its staff due to a decline in patient volume stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to KLTV. The furloughs will last about 90 days, but some employees may be called back earlier. Employees will still have access to health insurance and paid time off benefits.
3. Manchester, N.H.-based Catholic Medical Center has furloughed 700 employees after canceling elective procedures to save staff and supplies for COVID-19 patients, according to The Union Leader. The hospital said it is losing about half of its typical monthly revenue. Furloughed workers can use paid time off.
4. Citing a revenue loss tied to the COVID-19 pandemic, Glens Falls (N.Y.) Hospital furloughed 337 workers, according to The Glens Falls Post-Star. Affected employees work in nonclinical roles.
5. Weymouth, Mass.-based South Shore Health has placed 219 employees on furlough in an effort to counter some of the financial strain caused by COVID-19, according to The Patriot Ledger. The health system has more than 5,600 employees. The health system said it is looking to reassign some of the workers to new roles.
6. Las Cruces, N.M.-based Memorial Medical Center has furloughed 125 employees, according to The Las Cruces Sun News. The furloughs affected nearly all departments and will last 60 days. The employees will earn partial pay and will still retain health benefits.
7. Minneapolis-based Allina Health said that employees in nonclinical and indirect patient care roles must take at least one mandatory furlough in a 30-day period, according to SW News Media. The mandatory unpaid furlough will be one week in duration. Employees can use paid time off to cover the mandatory furlough.
“Not unlike other health care systems in Minnesota and across the nation, these changes have created significant financial pressures for Allina Health,” the health system said in a news release.
8. Irving, Texas-based Christus Health implemented furloughs for a portion of its staff, according to KLTV. The health system said employees will retain their healthcare benefits and are allowed to take paid time off. The system didn’t disclose how many employees will be affected.
9. In an effort to help offset an expected revenue loss of $6 million per month, Derby, Conn.-based Griffin Hospital is furloughing 99 employees, according to The New Haven Register. The furloughed employees work in nonclinical roles.
10. Las Cruces, N.M.-based MountainView Regional Medical Center has placed 67 employees on furlough, according to The Las Cruces Sun News. The medical center has furloughed employees from departments where services have been suspended during the pandemic.
11. Nacogdoches (Texas) Memorial Hospital has furloughed a portion of its staff due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to The Lufkin Daily News. The hospital said it has been stockpiling supplies for an anticipated surge in COVID-19 patients, which has “resulted in extraordinary expenses piling up at exactly the same time that we’ve intentionally driven volumes down by more than 50 percent.”
April 13
1. Citing a revenue drop due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Decatur (Ala.) Morgan Hospital is furloughing about 10 percent of its staff, 100 workers, according to The Decatur Daily.
2. Springfield, Mo.-based CoxHealth has furloughed 283 employees due to the suspension of elective procedures, according to The Springfield News-Leader. The hospital said it is working to get some of the furloughed employees redeployed to other positions in the health system.
3. Canton, Ohio-based Aultman Health will furlough about 400 employees, according to The Canton Rep. The majority of furloughed employees work in nonclinical roles, low-volume service areas or can’t be redeployed to care settings.
4. Evangelical Community Hospital, based in Lewisburg, Pa., has placed 400 workers on a furlough, according to The Williamsport Sun-Gazette. The hospital employs about 1,900 workers.
“Furloughs were across the board,” Deanna Hollenbach, a Evangelical Community Hospital spokesperson, told The Sun-Gazette.
5. Danville, Ky.-based Ephraim McDowell Health plans to furlough 20 percent of its 1,700-employee workforce, according to The Advocate Messenger. The hospital system said that it needed to “take immediate steps to ensure that we can sustain our operations after the COVID-19 crisis ends,” according to a statement obtained by the publication.
6. Starting April 13, Farmington, N.M.-based San Juan Regional Medical Center is furloughing a portion of its staff, according to The Farmington Daily Times. The furloughs will affect employees in elective care and in nonclinical roles.
7. Citing a revenue loss of 50 percent, Elmeria, N.Y.-based Arnot Health plans to furlough a portion of its staff to shore up finances, according to MyTwinTiers.com. Affected employees will be notified by April 17.
“The subsequent reductions in patient revenue have made it impossible for Arnot Health to afford the cost of current staffing levels in all but the most essential areas at this time,” the hospital said in a news release.
8. Although Mayo Clinic previously said it would protect full pay and benefits through April 28, after that date the system now says it will furlough some staff and implement pay cuts to address significant reductions in revenues. The Rochester, Minn.-based system said it projects a $900 million shortfall, even with the furloughs and pay cuts. On April 22, Mayo Clinic said the furloughs and reduced hours will impact about 30,000 staff members. The system also said it expects to incur $3 billion in losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The furloughs or reduced hours affect about 42 percent of Mayo Clinic’s 70,000 employees across its campuses in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota.
9. Anderson, S.C.-based AnMed Health will begin implementing furloughs April 19, according to WWYF. The furloughs are expected to last about three months. There was no specific number of furloughs announced, but officials said both clinical and nonclinical employees will be affected.
10. Spartanburg (S.C.) Regional Healthcare System has furloughed some of its staff, according to WWYF. The health system has set up a COVID-19 fund to support affected staff.
11. La Crosse, Wis.-based Gundersen Health System has furloughed some of its staff, according to The La Crosse Tribune. Gundersen officials said that its locations have experienced a 40 percent to 80 percent decrease in business operations in the last few weeks due to the suspension of nonemergent procedures and clinic visits.
“These are temporary actions,” Gundersen CEO Scott Rathgaber, MD, told the publication. “We plan to bring staff back to fully serve the needs of our patients and communities when our procedures and appointments can safely return to normal operations.”
12. Grays Harbor Community Hospital, based in Aberdeen, Wash., has implemented furloughs after the system saw a 45 percent drop in outpatient procedures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to KXRO. The hospital said it was also incurring more costs to procure equipment for staff. The furloughs will begin April 13 and last 90 days.
13. Citing millions of dollars in lost revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bennington-based Southwestern Vermont Health Care is furloughing a portion of its workforce, according to The Bennington Banner. The health system expects to furlough about 100 of its 1,400 workers and said it will reassess the furloughs every two weeks.
14. Putnam, Conn.-based Day Kimball Healthcare has furloughed workers due to a drop in patient volume and revenue, according to NBC Connecticut.
April 10
1. Allentown, Pa.-based Lehigh Valley Health Network has furloughed about 900 employees who work at its physician practices, according to The Morning Call. The email obtained by the publication stated that furloughed workers can return to work after in-person patient visits return to normal levels.
2. Halifax Health, based in Daytona Beach, Fla, has placed 300 staff members on a mandatory four-month furlough, according to The Daytona Beach News Journal. The news comes just nine days after the system asked for volunteers to take furloughs. The health system is also mandating that nonclinical staff not included in the furlough take one day off per week.
3. Citing financial pressure from the COVID-19 pandemic, Escondido, Calif.-based Palomar Health has issued temporary layoffs for 221 employees, according to NBC San Diego. The furloughs will last 21 days and may be extended. Palomar Health said it is facing a significant revenue decline and incurred more costs to procure equipment.
4. Citing a 60 percent reduction in revenue in the last two weeks due to the pandemic, Marshall, Mich.-based Oaklawn Hospital has temporarily laid off 200 employees, according to local news station WWMT. The temporary layoffs affect about 17 percent of its 1,150 employees.
5. More than half of the employees at Gold Beach, Ore.-based Curry Health Network will be furloughed, laid off or have hours cut, according to Oregon Live. The hospital network said that 192 employees will be affected. At the beginning of March the network employed 340. The system said the state’s ban on elective procedures to free up capacity and supplies for COVID-19 patients cut into its revenue stream, according to the report.
6. Baptist Health, an eight-hospital system based in Louisville, Ky., has implemented temporary unpaid furloughs for employees in jobs that do not support caregivers or are not critical to treating COVID-19 patients. The health system did not disclose the number of furloughed employees.
“Our intent is to return to normal operations as soon as possible, and begin calling back employees. This is just a temporary measure,” said Baptist Health CEO Gerard Colman.
7. Batesville, Ark.-based White River Health System has furloughed some employees for 30 days due to a decrease in patient volume, according to local news station KARK. It is unclear how many employees were placed on furlough, but they are expected to be temporary.
8. Citing volume declines of more than 50 percent due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Georgetown, S.C.-based Tidelands Health has furloughed an undisclosed number of staff, according to WPDE, an ABC affiliate.
9. Gardener, Mass.-based Heywood Healthcare has furloughed an undisclosed number of staff in units and facilities that were closed in preparation for a surge of coronavirus patients, according to The Gardener News. The first furlough will last four weeks and will mainly affect staff that work in outpatient settings.
“We are actually seeing a $5 million drop in overall revenue for our organization, so we are going to really work on staffing, and we are going to implement a variety of things today, including furloughs — both full furloughs for staff and partial furloughs — continuing to use low activity days, some very limited layoffs, reducing scheduled hours, changing our on-call arrangements, restructuring job positions, reducing the contracted services we have, as we try to tackle and lower our expenses,” Win Brown, president and CEO of Heywood Healthcare, told the publication.
10. Brewer, Maine -based Northern Light Health is asking its staff to volunteer to take furloughs, according to CentralMaine.com. The health system said it has no plans to conduct involuntary furloughs.
April 9
1. Citing severe patient volume disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson City, Tenn.-based Ballad Health plans to furlough at least 1,300 workers, cut pay for some senior leaders and suspend retirement contributions. Ballad is projecting a cash flow drop of $150 million in the next 90 days due to the suspension of elective procedures.
2. Lewiston-based Central Maine Healthcare will furlough 330 employees to help offset the revenue loss caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Bangor Daily News. The furloughs affect about 10 percent of its workforce.
“Furloughs like this are one way that we can adjust and manage the balance sheet appropriately. It also allows us to do that without having to sacrifice jobs permanently, without having to end the provision of care,” Kate Carlisle, director of public relations and community affairs for Central Maine Healthcare, told the publication.
3. Oswego (N.Y.) Health will furlough 25 percent of its workforce next week, according to Syracuse.com. Health system officials said that it has been losing about $180,000 per day since the beginning of March due to the coronavirus pandemic. Oswego Health said the furloughs should last about 10 to 12 weeks.
4. Citing a revenue and patient volume dip caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Hopkinsville, Ky.-based Jenny Stuart Health has furloughed 248 staff members, according to Kentucky New Era. The health system has about 1,000 employees.
“This is an incredibly difficult time for our health system, and this is not a decision we made lightly. I regret the immediate personal impact on these employees and their families,” Jennie Stuart Health CEO Eric Lee told the publication.
5. Marshfield (Wis.) Clinic will furlough employees who are not involved in preparing for the anticipated surge in COVID-19 patients, according to local news station WEAU. The furloughs are expected to be temporary, and staff can be recalled at any point in time to help manage the surge, according to the report.
6. Due to the suspension of elective procedures, Ashtabula (Ohio) County Medical Center is furloughing a portion of its workforce, according to the Star Beacon. To reduce the number of employees affected by the furlough, the hospital is training some employees to support different clinical departments in anticipation of a surge of COVID-19 patients.
7. University of Kansas Health System St. Francis Campus in Topeka is laying off 29 employees and furloughing 235, according to The Topeka Capital Journal. The furloughs and layoffs are an effort to offset the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The furloughs affect about 17 percent of the hospital’s staff.
8. Holyoke, Colo.-based Melissa Memorial Hospital is placing 19 employees on furlough for about three months, according to The Holyoke Enterprise. Furloughed employees are expected to return to work on July 26. The hospital said the decision was made because revenue was down due to the suspension of elective procedures.
9. Mad River Community Hospital, a 78-bed hospital in Arcata, Calif., is placing some employees on a full or partial furlough, according to Lost Coast Outpost. Hospital officials said the move is “essential” to ensure its doors remain open after the pandemic.
10. Citing challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Oklahoma City-based Integris Health plans to furlough employees not involved in direct patient care, according to News 9. The furloughs are expected to be temporary. Affected employees will still receive health insurance benefits.
11. Abilene (Texas) Regional Medical Center has placed a small number of employees on furlough, according to KTXS, an ABC affiliate. Affected employees work in areas where services have been curtailed or suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
April 8
1. MUSC Health, an eight-hospital system based in Charleston, S.C., said it would temporarily lay off 900 employees, or 5 percent of its workforce, to offset the financial hit caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The temporary layoffs, which do not affect nonclinical workers, were effective April 7.
2. Nonclinical employees at Peoria, Ill.-based OSF HealthCare will be subject to mandatory paid time off or will be furloughed, the health system said April 7. The health system said the furloughs are necessary to help offset a revenue loss caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is important for the communities OSF has been called to serve for more than 142 years that we stabilize our financial position and protect our culture so we can continue to serve those communities, and our Mission Partners and their families in Illinois and Michigan,” said Mike Allen, CFO of OSF HealthCare. “Our priority remains equipping our frontlines with the resources they need to ensure the continuation of essential care, while protecting those providing that care.”
3. Citing a revenue and patient volume reduction caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Holyoke, Mass.-based Valley Health System has furloughed 225 employees, according to Western Mass News. The furloughs affect about 11 percent of its workforce.
4. Odessa (Texas) Regional Medical Center has furloughed 60 employees to help offset a revenue loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic, CBS 7 reports. Affected employees will still receive insurance and are expected to be called back to work.
5. Medical Center Hospital in Odessa, Texas, has furloughed 30 staff members after the facility was ordered to suspend the lucrative elective procedures to save resources and staff to treat COVID-19 patients, according to CBS 7. The hospital has reassigned hospital workers to different areas, but Medical Center Hospital CEO Russell Tippin told the publication that it has been difficult.
“We’re in such a regulated industry that it’s hard,” Mr. Tippin told CBS 7. “You can’t take a pharmacist and put them in radiology. And you can’t take a radiologist and put them in pharmacy.”
6. Citing financial difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Chillicothe, Ohio-based Adena Health System plans to furlough nonclinical workers in the coming weeks, according to a video from Adena CEO Jeff Graham.
7. In an effort to ease the financial damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Amarillo, Texas-based BSA Hospital plans to furlough some of its employees for up to 90 days, according to ABC 7 Amarillo.
8. Magnolia (Ark.) Regional Medical Center has furloughed an undisclosed number of nonclinical staff, including administrative and clerical workers, according to The Magnolia Banner News. The furloughs are expected to last at least two months. Affected staff will remain on the MRMC roster and maintain insurance, according to the report.
9. Caribou, Maine-based Cary Medical Center has furloughed a number of employees due to a drop in patient volume and revenue as a result of preparing for a COVID-19 patient surge, according to The Bangor Daily News. A majority of the furloughs affect support staff for physicians, according to the report.
10. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hartford, Conn.-based Trinity Health of New England plans to furlough an undisclosed number of employees, according to The Hartford Courant. The majority of the furloughs will affect nonclinical workers.
“This will enable us to focus our resources on the functions directly related to essential COVID-19 patient care needs that we anticipate, while protecting people and helping prevent the spread of the disease,” Trinity Health of New England said in a statement to The Hartford Courant.
April 7
1. Tulsa, Okla.-based HillCrest HealthCare System will furlough 600 employees for up to 90 days, according to local news station KRMG. The furloughs affect about 9 percent of staff and are a result of a decline in routine and elective procedures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
2. Thomas Health System in South Charleston, W.Va., plans to furlough “less than 500” employees starting this week, according to the West Virginia Gazette Mail. In announcing the furloughs, the health system cited the suspension of nonemergent procedures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
3. Citing a decrease in patient volume and revenue due to the pandemic, Cookeville (Tenn.) Regional Medical Center has furloughed 400 employees, according to Fox 17 News.
“The pandemic created by COVID-19 has had a devastating impact not only in our community and state but across our entire country and the world that has required each of us to make sacrifices,” the hospital said in a statement to Fox 17 News.
4. Cape Fear Valley Health, based in Fayetteville, N.C., plans to furlough an additional 350 employees, according to The Fayetteville Observer. The health system had already furloughed about 300 employees on March 27. The health system said since the first round of furloughs, its inpatient occupancy has dropped to 60 percent.
5. Citing a revenue and patient volume drop from the COVID-19 pandemic, Washington Court House, Ohio-based Fayette County Memorial Hospital has furloughed 71 of its 352 employees, according to radio station WKKJ. The furloughs are expected to last for 30 days.
6. M Health Fairview, a 10-hospital system in Minneapolis, is asking physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants in some clinics to volunteer to take a week of unpaid leave as a furlough, according to The Star Tribune.The system is taking volunteers for one-week physician furloughs through May 3. Those who volunteer will still receive benefits.
7. Mountain Home, Ark.-based Baxter Regional Medical Center plans to furlough an undisclosed number of employees to ease the financial hit from a decrease in volume and increased costs to prepare for the COVID-19 pandemic, according to local news station KTLO. The furloughs are expected to be temporary. The hospital will reevaluate if additional measures are needed or if employees can return after four weeks.
8. Joplin, Mo.-based Freeman Health System plans to furlough an undisclosed number of employees after suspending elective procedures to prepare for the anticipated surge in COVID-19 patients, according to FourStatesHomepage.com
9. Lawrence (La.) General Hospital has placed 160 staff members on a four-week furlough, according to The Eagle Tribune. Most of the furloughs, which are expected to be temporary, affect nonclinical workers. Lawrence General has about 2,000 employees.
10. Froedtert Health has furloughed some workers, according to local news station Fox 6, which spoke to furloughed nurses from the Wauwatosa, Wis.-based system on the condition of anonymity.
April 6
1. Huntington, W.Va.-based Mountain Health Network furloughed 550 employees and cut the hours of 450, according to local news station WSAZ. The furloughs are a result of the financial and resource strain prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
2. LRGHealthcare, based in Laconia, N.H., plans to furlough 600 employees for up to four months to cope with the financial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Laconia Daily Sun. Affected employees will keep their medical insurance and can receive unemployment compensation.
3. Citing a 35 percent reduction in revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Columbia, Tenn.-based Maury Regional Health will furlough 340 employees this week, according to The Columbia Daily Herald. Maury Regional Health employs more than 3,000.
“We are experiencing unprecedented events as the COVID-19 pandemic evolves. After much deliberation, we were forced to make the difficult decision to furlough employees in the face of declining volumes and revenue. We plan to begin calling back employees as patient volumes normalize,” Maury Regional CEO Alan Watson told the Daily Herald.
4. Franklin, Tenn.-based Williamson Medical Center will furlough 200 employees due to a loss in revenue attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic and government mandates to postpone elective procedures, according to The Tenneseean. The furloughs, which began taking place April 1, are expected to be temporary.
5. Coos Bay, Ore.-based North Bend Medical Center has furloughed 130 employees to prepare for the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to TheWorldLink.com. The medical center is still providing insurance to the furloughed workers.
6. Citing a $16 million revenue loss in March due to the postponement of elective procedures, Sarasota (Fla.) Memorial Hospital will furlough an undisclosed number of employees, according to local news station WUSF. The hospital, which has 6,400 employees, expects to lose even more revenue in April and May due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
7. Dayton, Ohio-based Premier Health will furlough an undisclosed number of employees due to an anticipated financial hit from Ohio’s interim ban on nonessential surgeries, according to The Dayton Business Journal. The furloughs will affect employees that are not providing patient care.
8. Due to a loss in revenue and patient volume, Conway (S.C.) Medical Center plans to furlough about 100 employees who are not frontline care providers, according to WMBF. The hospital said the mandate on suspending elective procedures caused the revenue and volume drop.
April 3
1. Burlington, Mass.-based Wellforce, which includes four community hospitals, one academic medical center and a children’s hospital, has furloughed 719 workers, according to the Boston Business Journal. The affected employees will be furloughed for at least 90 days to help the system deal with the drastic volume decrease from suspending elective procedures. In addition, 1,236 employees will have their hours and pay reduced, according to the report.
2. Southbridge, Mass.-based Harrington Healthcare has furloughed 131 employees across its network this week, according to MassLive. About 20 of the 131 affected employees were “partially furloughed,” meaning their hours were significantly reduced, according to the report. Chris Canniff, the company’s vice president of administration and human resources, said the provider has seen a 50 percent decline in patient volume amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Furloughed employees will not be paid for four weeks.
3. Seattle-based Virginia Mason Medical Center said it has seen a 30 percent decline in revenue since the COVID-19 pandemic started and Gov. Jay Inslee ordered hospitals to suspend elective procedures. As a result, the system is furloughing an undisclosed number of employees, according to local station K5 News. Most of the affected employees are in nonclinical roles.
“We rely substantially on outpatient revenue to ensure our financial viability,” wrote medical center executives in an internal memo to Virginia Mason leaders obtained by K5 News. “This is an unprecedented time and it calls for drastic measures.”
4. Citing drastic revenue decreases and increased expenses, Columbus, Ohio-based Mount Carmel Health System will furlough nonclinical staff, according to ABC 6. The health system said fewer than 500 employees will be affected. The system employs more than 10,000. In addition to the furloughs, the health system is implementing pay cuts for executives and physicians, according to the report.
5. Atlantic City, N.J.-based AtlantiCare has furloughed some of its workers due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to NJ.com. In addition, the system has asked staff members, including nurses and physicians, to voluntarily take a furlough or a reduction in their hours, according to Press of Atlantic City. The staffing changes began taking place March 30. The changes are considered temporary, and affected employees will keep their benefits.
6. Citing a drop in patient revenue due to government mandates to help the COVID-19 pandemic, Dayton, Ohio-based Kettering Health Network is placing some of its employees on furlough, according to the Dayton Business Journal.
7. New Bedford, Mass.-based Southcoast Health will furlough some staff not actively involved in patient care efforts because the health system is absorbing a deep revenue hit, according to Southcoast Today. The health system will pay a portion of furloughed employees’ insurance premiums through June 30.
April 2
1. Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity Health plans to furlough 2,500 employees. The system made the decision to help offset the financial hit from COVID-19. Most of the affected employees are in nonclinical roles.
2. Boston Medical Center is furloughing 700 staff members, or 10 percent of its workforce, due to financial losses from the COVID-19 pandemic. Kate Walsh, CEO of Boston Medical Center, told The Globe that the hospital has lost about $5 million in revenue per week, and that the furloughs will help save the system about $1 million per week.
3. Citing a revenue hit from the COVID-19 pandemic, Cincinnati-based Bon Secours Mercy Health will furlough 700 employees and freeze wages of all nonclinical personnel. The furloughs are expected to begin next week and last 30 to 90 days, depending on how long the pandemic lasts, according to Bon Secours Mercy Health CEO John Starcher. Bon Secours Mercy Health estimates it will see an operating loss of at least $100 million per month while the pandemic lasts.
4. Citing a severe disruption in services due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Duluth, Minn.-based Essentia Health has placed about 500 nonclinical staff on administrative leave.
5. Hartford-based Connecticut Children’s Medical Center is furloughing 400 employees across its system due to the expected financial hit from COVID-19, according to The Hartford Courant. The system said its patient volume has been cut in half due to halting elective procedures. Furloughed employees are mainly nonclinical workers, and are expected to return to work in early June, or when elective procedures can resume.
6. Clay County Medical Center, a 25-bed hospital in Clay Center, Kan., has furloughed 25 percent of its staff in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to The Clay Center Dispatch. It has about 300 employees, according to its website.
7. Williamson Medical Center in Franklin, Tenn., will temporarily furlough 200 employees to sustain its financial resources during the COVID-19 pandemic.
8. Dallas-based Steward Health Care is informing employees to expect furloughs at its facilities across the U.S. as the system works to overcome the “seismic shock” of the COVID-19 pandemic. The health system said it has started a temporary furlough program for some employees of its hospitals in nine states. Most affected staff work in nonclinical jobs.
9. Huntsville (Ala.) Hospital System, faced with expenses and a loss of revenue due to the novel coronavirus, has implemented a cost reduction plan that includes furloughs, according to AL.com. Huntsville Hospital said April 9 that it had to furlough or cut hours for 2,000 employees.
10. Syracuse, N.Y.-based St. Joseph Health plans to furlough an undisclosed number of workers as it prepares to deal with an “unprecedented fiscal fallout” from the COVID-19 pandemic, Syracuse.com reports. St. Joseph Health will also cut pay for senior management.
11. Baptist Health in Little Rock, Ark., has started furloughing an undisclosed number of employees this week to address an expected revenue loss from the pandemic.
12. Little Rock-based Arkansas Heart Hospital has furloughed workers due to the interruption of normal hospital operations.
March 27 to April 1
1. Citing the financial hit from the COVID-19 pandemic, Greenville, S.C.-based Prisma Health said it will furlough an undisclosed number of clinical, corporate and administrative workers. On April 9, Prisma Health executives told legislators that it was forced to furlough or cut hours for 3,900 of its 30,000 person workforce, according to The State.
2. Chattanooga, Tenn.-based Erlanger Health System said it is implementing a cost-reduction plan that includes furloughs and pay reductions for leadership. The moves were prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Administrative employees also are affected by the furlough.
3. Appalachian Regional Healthcare, a 13-hospital system in Lexington, Ky., will furlough about 500 employees due to a sharp reduction in business and revenue. In addition to the financial aspect, Appalachian Regional said its decision was to protect employees not involved in direct patient care from contracting the novel virus and ensure that the health system has enough supplies to treat the anticipated surge of COVID-19 patients.
4. Cleveland-based St. Vincent Charity Medical Center has furloughed about 70 employees amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Affected employees include nurses, surgical assistants, clerical and other support staff.
5. Morehead, Ky.-based St. Claire HealthCare announced it will furlough 300 employees who are not involved in direct patient care to ensure it can sustain clinical operations during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
6. Astoria, Ore.-based Columbia Memorial Hospital has furloughed 90 of its 740 employees after the facility scaled back nonemergent procedures to concentrate on the coronavirus.
7. Citing the spreading and unforgiving demands of the COVID-19 pandemic, Canton, Ohio-based Mercy Medical Center has furloughed workers. The move came shortly after the state ordered hospitals to suspend elective surgeries and procedures to free up capacity and supplies to treat COVID-19 patients.The number of staff affected was not disclosed.
8. Meadville (Pa.) Medical Center has furloughed more than 225 employees to ensure the hospital’s financial stability. The hospital said the furlough is expected to last through April 5, but warned an extension is possible if the pandemic continues to affect business operations and revenue.
9. To help the system survive the economic challenges linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, Rockford, Ill.-based Mercyhealth has furloughed an undisclosed number of employees who are not providing direct patient care.
10. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lewisburg, Pa.-based Evangelical Community Hospital has furloughed a “significant” number of employees who are not involved in direct patient care.
HENRY KOTULA 