MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — WVU Medicine continues to changes its policies amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Dr. Albert Wright, the system’s CEO, said on Friday’s MetroNews “Talkline” there is now a new classification of employees.
“We now have what we call Category II employees that are taking care of low-risk patients,” he said. “We’re having them wear masks try to protect them because we have to be able to keep our workforce especially if we have that surge we fear.”
Wright said health officials have to make sure staff are protected, especially in smaller buildings.
“There’s a very high level of personal protective equipment when our employees are working with a known or suspected COVID-19 patient,” he said.
WVU Medicine has around 30 patients with the coronavirus. Wright noted half of the individuals are on ventilators.
West Virginia is expected to see a peak in cases on May 4, but Wright said he is confident the hospital system can handle the influx.
“I’m at Ruby Memorial today, and we have a little less than 400 patients in-house and normally we would have 650 to 675 in-house,” he said. “We’ve still got significant ICU capacity, bed capacity and ventilator capacity.”
The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources announced Friday 237 confirmed cases have been reported to the state.