Community Chat

[Mindy D]

Governor Cuomo of New York said that a surprising 66% of newly hospitalized cases in New York were described in the data from 100 hospitals as being people that were sheltering at home and venturing out little. About 1,000 patients are involved. The data was to include where newly admitted patients were staying just before admission to the hospital with COVID-19 infections. Investigating how contacts were made with this group is vitally important to tracking the spread of the disease. 

According to NBC News:

"Hospitals were asked to document where their most recent COVID-19 patients had been staying before admission, Cuomo said, and 66 percent came from their own homes.

About 18 percent came from nursing homes, 4 percent from assisted-living facilities, 2 percent were homeless, 2 percent had been at other "congregate" settings, fewer than 1 percent were prison or jail inmates, and 8 percent were classified as "other."

"This is a surprise," the governor told reporters at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research in Manhasset, New York. "Sixty-six percent of the people were at home, which is shocking to us."

The data came from 113 hospitals reporting information on patients being treated over three recent days, according to state health officials.

"They're not working; they're not traveling," Cuomo said of these recently hospitalized coronavirus patients. "We were thinking that maybe we were going to find a higher percent of essential employees who were getting sick because they were going to work — that these may be nurses, doctors, transit workers. That's not the case. They were predominantly at home."

The state also reported that among these recently hospitalized patients, only 17 percent are currently employed, while 37 percent are retirees and 46 percent are unemployed.

"The largest group of us are still at home, so it's not surprising that the largest source (of recent hospitalizations) are people at home," Kumi Smith, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota, told NBC News."

[happycat]

If these people are in apartments, could the virus be traveling thru air ducts? 

It seems like I have heard it can and cannot go thru air ducts and I think it just depends on who you ask. 

I wonder how long these folks had been sheltering at home? 

[Janey2]

I am wondering if these people have had company over. Some people say they are staying home, but are not alone.

[reiki604]

As I stated in another thread, although these people may have been sheltering at home, they  might be living with an essential worker or someone else who does the shopping and outside chores for them. This disease is so insidious and contagious, tracking is an essential part of containment.

[FiddleDeeDee]

Unless the person was living alone, had not left their home for 6 weeks or so prior to coming down ill and saw NO ONE in that entire time, I don't care about the research on the 66%.

Just because the person may have never left their home, doesn't mean that OTHERS did the same. If you really want to look at this in depth, you'll have to remove any of those who fit into the group in paragraph 1. Until that happens, not interested.

[noodleann]

People lie, and sometimes they don't realize they're misrepresenting the facts.

I have a friend in NYC who says repeatedly that he's staying at home. But he markets at 2 or 3 stores daily, visits a friend across town weekly, and spent time with other friends at their house upstate. I know all this because he tells me. He doesn't count the lapses. It's like someone on a diet who fails to enter the family-size bag of chips they demolished in their food journal. But my friend insists that he's obeying the lockdown. He's married and his wife is with him, so it's not as if he has no company.

This is why people will continue to get sick. They just can't stand to be inside, so they're going out and being exposed.

In my observation, men are worse about conforming to virus hygiene than women.

[willdob3]

They probably went to a grocery store. Or someone brought them food. It only takes one person, one time to be in contact with someone. I doubt these people were home alone, never seeing anyone at all. 

[Mindy D]

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@reiki604 wrote:

As I stated in another thread, although these people may have been sheltering at home, they  might be living with an essential worker or someone else who does the shopping and outside chores for them. This disease is so insidious and contagious, tracking is an essential part of containment.

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@reiki604 This is just one reason why the contacts made with these people will need further investigation. This can lead to a better understanding of how the virus is spreading. Did any person catch the virus from touching delivered packaging? Did anyone get it from contact at their front door? Did anyone get it while making only one trip to a grocery store? What about multiple trips? Did a relative drop by and was then then let inside the home? Did a patient get it from a trip involving just a drive through pick up at a pharmacy? There are so many possibile routes of infection. That's why this presents a good opportunity to learn. 

[mspatmac]

What about necessary services like ac/heat system repair, replacement appliance, plumbing service, where a repair person needs home access.  I have a neighbor who had new wall to wall carpet installed yesterday but she didn't leave her house.