Not reopening carries health costs too, said the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar promoted cautious reopening of the country as he spent Friday visiting Jacksonville sites that have been consumed for months in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
“We do need to get back to work and we need to get back to school. … There are ways to do it safely,” Azar said at a testing center outside TIAA Bank Field downtown, where 13,000 tests have been done since March.
The visit continued a series of appearances nationally by members of President Donald Trump’s administration to promote easing of restrictions imposed two months ago.
Critics of the president dismissed it as political posturing.
“Jacksonville’s health care workers don’t want a photo-op with Secretary Azar,” former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign said in an email about the visit. “They want the testing and protective equipment needed to treat their patients and end this pandemic once and for all.”
But some workers apparently wanted photos as well. Florida National Guard members who have been operating the Lot J testing site huddled around the secretary for a group shot at the end of his visit, and Azar handed out military-style campaign coins as remembrances.
Hours earlier, staff at an Arlington skilled nursing center snapped pictures as the secretary arrived to tour their building and talk with the owners about their experiences opening during the pandemic.
Dolphin Pointe Health Care has adopted an unusual role, exclusively treating people who have been exposed to the COVID-19 virus and are considered “medically stable.”
Patients arriving at the center, next to Jacksonville University, have been considered fit for release from hospitals but not welcome at other rehab centers until they tested negative for the coronavirus for at least two weeks to ensure they weren’t contagious. Employees follow specialized protocols to avoid infection and clean the facility with equipment including a robot that bathes unoccupied rooms with ultraviolet light to kill bacteria.
The center, which opened last month, held 66 residents on Friday.
The visit happened the same day’s Azar’s department approved $4.9 billion in additional funding to help skilled nursing facilities offset costs of the pandemic. Florida is slated to receive $217.6 million.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and Mary Mayhew, secretary of the state Agency for Health Care Administration, joined Azar at Dolphin Pointe, which they have used as a model to replicate elsewhere to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care facilities. Azar congratulated the owners and employees for helping save lives.
By Friday, 49,451 cases of COVID-19 had been recorded in Florida, including 2,190 deaths. Nationally, about 1.6 million cases had been reported and close to 96,000 deaths.
Other stops on the Jacksonville tour included Mayo Clinic and Bernhardt Laboratories, a Southside pathology lab that shifted to making COVID-19 testing kits for distribution nationally.
During his travels, Azar talked to reporters, restating an argument he has made that shutting down daily life to prevent coronavirus infections causes other health problems that need to be considered.
Cancers that are spotted late because screening was delayed, hearts that didn’t receive stents because elective surgeries weren’t performed and vaccinations that children didn’t receive because their families avoided doctors’ offices will all lead to sickness and suffering, he said.
He said reopening the country for business has to be done carefully but carries benefits that should be weighed alongside the costs of infection risks.