As our local communities and the world continue to react and implement measures to contain the coronavirus referred to as COVID-19, you may find yourself turned away from the nursing home where your loved one resides and unable to visit them. A responsible plan to protect nursing home residents has been mandated by most state governors. Nursing home residents are most vulnerable to the symptoms associated with COVID-19. Therefore, there is solid science and logic to such a quarantine.

If you have a loved one in a nursing home, we recommend the following:

On Friday, March 6, 2020, the first case of coronavirus (COVID-19) in Kentucky was confirmed in Harrison County. The individual, whose name has not been released, was first treated at Harrison Memorial Hospital and then airlifted to a hospital in Lexington. They were a resident in a nursing home. A team of doctors will be sent to Harrison County to figure out how the infected person contracted the virus and who they have been in contact with recently.

In response to this news, Gov. Steve Beshear declared a level 4 State of Emergency for the state of Kentucky on Friday night. Local nursing homes in the area have also stopped allowing their residents to have visitors. This is due to the fact that nursing home residents and other elderly and/or those with compromised immune systems are often the most susceptible of contracting any type of virus. In Washington State earlier this week, COVID-19’s contamination into one nursing home led to multiple deaths.

Two residents from the Life Care nursing care center in Kirkland, Washington died of coronavirus days before officials identified the emerging crisis. Now, it’s believed the virus has been circulating inside the facility for even longer than previously believed and well before residents were quarantined to their rooms. At this time, nowhere else in the country has been hit as hard by the coronavirus as Kirkland.

According to the New York Times, as of March 3, 2020, seven residents have been confirmed dead from the virus. It’s estimated that seven others with a connection to the home have fallen ill because of it. North Carolina officials reported a resident of the state testing positive for the virus after traveling to the Life Care center and returning home.

While riding in an Uber through Center City, Philadelphia in March 2018, Jillian Kemenosh’s driver ran a red light that caused a car accident so bad that she ended up fracturing her spine as well as sustaining a concussion and traumatic brain injury. After the accident, Kemenosh tried to file a claim against Uber, its local subsidiaries, and the driver for her injuries because they were directly caused by her driver’s reckless actions.

In court, Uber said she didn’t have the right to a public trial, saying that she had agreed to binding arbitration back in 2013 when she joined the app and agreed to their terms of service. When riders sign up for the Uber app, they must agree to the terms of service, which includes that they are 18 years or older, are using a valid credit card, and won’t sue the company in a trial by jury. Instead, they agree to settle by arbitration agreement.

In an attempt to combine into one new state-of-the-art hospital with up to six community health centers, four South Side hospitals in Chicago will be closing. Advocate Trinity Hospital in Calumet Heights, Mercy Hospital & Medical Center in Bronzeville, South Shore Hospital in South Chicago, and St. Bernard Hospital in Englewood created this plan because they fell into financial hardship and see this as a way to make much-needed improvements to the healthcare in the area.

The plan is projected to cost $1.1 billion, but locations and timelines have not been finalized yet. Although that budget is high, Advocate Trinity Hospital claimed they plan to cut costs by $1.1 billion and double its revenue by 2025, which will replenish the cost of this project. According to hospital leaders, in the meantime the funding for the project will come from the founding hospitals, their parent organizations, donations, and the state.