By: Hannah Samett
We are all going to get the Coronavirus, according to New Jersey’s Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli.
“I’m definitely going to get it. We all are,” she said in an interview with NJ.com. “I’m just waiting.”
Speaking alongside the state’s governor, Phil Murphy, Persichilli pointed out that just-released CDC data demonstrates that risk for serious disease and death of COVID-19 among people in the US increases with age, not surprisingly. However, it also indicates severe illness leading to hospitalization, including intensive care unit admissions and death can occur in adults of any age.
“This data did reinforce that most of the serious outcomes occurred among adults 65 and older, with them having hospitalizations of about 45%, 53% ICU admissions, 80% of the deaths occurred among this population,” she said. “So this information is similar to what we’re seeing in China, indicating that more than 80% of deaths occurred among people 60 years and older. In contrast, individuals 19 and younger appear to have milder COVID-19 illness, with almost no hospitalizations or deaths. That’s 19 years and younger.”
In New Jersey, Persichilli noted, “we’re still examining the data and similar to the national trend, information on outcomes is somewhat limited at this time. The median age for our cases is a little bit younger, it’s 52. Of the 139 cases for which we have outcome data, nearly half of them have been hospitalized. So although the median age of our cases is younger than those in the highest risk category, we are still very much focused on those individuals 60 years and older.”
She said she has spoken repeatedly about “our concern for individuals who reside in long-term care facilities, especially our nursing homes. On March 6, I held a conference call with more than 400 facilities to discuss about the COVID-19 preparedness for this vulnerable population. Last week, we sent guidance requiring them to restrict all visitors and also screen all staff as they enter the facility, and all medical staff professionals, including physicians, physical therapists, hospice workers. They were to be screened and are being screened for respiratory virus symptoms, contact with COVID-19 cases, and travel to any of the impacted countries, or where community-based spread is occurring. We’ve also sent information to them on how to handle positive COVID-19 cases in long-term care settings.”
The department has identified positive cases of COVID-19 in six nursing home, assisted living facilities. The commissioner has ordered curtailing admissions, all admissions, to those facilities. “In addition, we are requiring them to use infection preventionists to assess their infection control practices, and they must conduct thorough cleaning not only daily, but frequently during the day. We checked the screening of all of their employees and every vendor that is dropping off or coming past the front doors of their facilities.”
