Let me give you a little story from today that was a true shock to us.
My DW has not been feeling well all week after attending a work related conference last week and was getting worse with a cough and cold like symptoms. We went to urgent care first today figuring it was just a bad cold and hopefully nothing worse. Based on the finding (low oxygen flow) there they said go to the emergency room. We went into triage immediately upon arrival and they started testing etc.
When the doctor came in, my DW mentioned she had been at a conference in Los Angeles with attendees from 52 countries. We were moved immediately to a negative pressure isolation room that was alarmed and only one door into a staging room. When the nursing staff came back in, they were fully smocked, gloved with double masks and face shields. She did not have a fever but they were not taking any chances. I could not even leave the room with zero symptoms.
Minutes turned into hours of waiting for swab tests to come back as there is no real test for coronavirus. CDC is issuing alerts and protocols almost hourly every day. All tests came back negative and because she has no fever was discharged home. They had said, earlier, after being moved, to start compiling a list of anyone we had been in contact with during the past week. I am not going to lie, this was about as stressful event anyone could ever encounter, as we could have been quarantined right there for weeks.
One of the nurses told us that there was another patient at the facility on another floor in quarantine with two US Marshals with AR 15's standing guard outside the door. Not a definite case they said, but again, no one is taking chances. This is the real deal. We are staying home for the next couple of days just to be safe. Hope to never repeat this again.
A souvenir picture of our visit.
