Covid-19 update: Prison hit by virus is 'death trap,' inmate's wife says; UK field hospital ready; obesity top risk for a severe case?

Nutter Field House at the University of Kentucky is now a 400-bed field hospital. (UK photo by Mark Cornelison)

As news develops about the coronavirus and its covid-19 disease, this item will be updated. Official state guidance is at kycovid19.ky.gov.

• John Cheves reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader that inmates at Green River Correctional Complex in Central City "complain of inadequate cleaning of common areas; a reduction of meals to once a day, usually served late; failure to test people inside the complex for the coronavirus unless they are showing symptoms, such as fever or cough; and an inability to properly segregate sick inmates from the rest of  the population because of a lack of available space." A wife of an inmate said, "It's a death trap at this point." 
• Last Friday, Gov. Andy Beshear reported a death at the prison, the first in the state's corrections system, and that 19 inmates and 15 employees in the corrections system have tested positive. On Saturday, he said five more inmates had been infected, bringing that number up to 24. 
• Betsy Johnson, president of the Kentucky Association of Health Care Facilities, told Cheves this month that the state's roughly 280 nursing homes are "pretty much sitting ducks if we get someone who is infected in our buildings." Cheves writes about the need for more personal protective gear, beds, staff and access to testing for the virus, saying nursing homes have been left out of the supply chain. On Sunday, Beshear reported that there have been 50 covid-19 deaths in long-term-care facilities, with 386 residents and 172 staffers testing positive. 
• The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is now requiring nursing homes to report covid-19 cases directly to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as to patients and their families. This marks a "significant change in practice," since the CDC has not formally tracked this information while thousands in nursing homes have died, Politico reports.
• "Ripples from the cornavirus impact on meat-processing plants are hitting Kentucky farmers hard," Janet Patton reports for the Herald-Leader. Covid-19 has shut down large processing plants across the nation, and now that it's time for Kentucky farmers to sell their beef and hogs, the prices are so low they won't be able to make a profit, she reports. In Kentucky, the Tyson chicken processing plant near Albany closed for one day this month after a worker tested positive for covid-19. What all this means for most of us is probably that meat will continue to be scarce.
• The New York Times reports that new studies (not peer-reviewed) find that the most important predictor of severe covid-19 is obesity, especially for younger patients who are otherwise healthy. Kentucky ranks fifth in adult obesity, with a rate of 36.6%; and more than one of five Kentucky children between 10 and 17 are obese, ranking the state third in the nation. 
• The number of children infected with the coronavirus is far more extensive that what is currently being reported, according to a University of South Florida news release. The study estimates that for each child who requires intensive care for covid-19, there are 2,381 children infected with the virus. Between March 18 and April 6, the study found that 74 U.S. children were admitted to pediatric intensive-care units, signaling that an additional 176,190 children were likely infected during that period. "Researchers point out the infection rate will be much higher for children in low-income families with parents in blue-collar and service jobs, which preclude the option of working from home," the release says. "There's also an increased risk to children who live in urban public housing projects due to the close proximity of housing units and small communal recreation and commons areas." 
• Becker's Hospital CFO Report breaks down  how  CMS will divvy out the next $30 billion in hospital aid: "About $20 billion will be distributed based on a hospital's proportion of total revenue, including money from private insurers and Medicaid. The remaining $10 billion in the second round of funding will be distributed to hospitals with large numbers of covid-19 patients, according to The Washington Post."
• Frank Romanelli, professor and associate dean of the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy, writes for UKNow, "What Medications are Safe in Cases of Covid-19?" He says the World Health Organization does not recommend against the use of ibuprofen, based on currently available information, despite reports from France that it might impede recovery. 
• The conversion of the UK football team's practice facility, Nutter Field House, to a temporary 400 bed field hospital to care for covid-19 patients is now complete, according to a UK news release.