COVID-19: More Everyday Heroes…

Beech Tree Elementary to the rescue! When Beech Tree mother Van Nguyen heard about the shortage of medical face masks, she put her sewing skills into action and produced 20 masks. Local medical professional pleaded for more. Then Beech Tree 5th grader Caroline joined the effort. Learning how to sew from her mother and YouTube tutorials, she has completed three face masks and has 30 more in production, reports the Fairfax County Public School community relations staff.

Scanning for fevers, donating masks. Based on its experiences dealing with the COVID-19 situation in China and Singapore, Micron Technology, which operates a semiconductor manufacturing plant in Manassas, is using noninvasive thermal scanners to determine if entering employees have a fever.  Sick employees can be told to return home. The company responded early to the epidemic, increasing site-cleaning rotations, making changes to cafeteria serving, and restricting large gatherings. The company is sharing its experience with other major employers across Virginia — and joining other firms, such as Huntington Ingalls, the Newport News shipbuilder, in donating personal protective gear to healthcare workers, reports Stephen Moret, CEO of the Virginia Economic Development in a recent communication to economic development partners.

Another $1 million for tests. The Charlottesville-based Quantitative Foundation has donated $1 million to UVA Health to accelerate the number of tests performed by the health system from 200 daily to more than 500. The grant provides for putting aside a portion for inpatients at other Virginia hospitals and for clinical providers and first responders with symptoms. Prior to the deployment of UVA Health’s in-house testing, patients were waiting five to nine days for results. Thanks to the UVA Health’s ability to produce its own tests, local turnaround time has been cut to 24 hours.

A limited number of trained personnel has constrained the ability of UVA Health to administer tests. The hospital system’s lab is using the grant to add a new lab tech position. That, in addition to the current cross-training of existing laboratory personnel, reports UVAToday, will allow testing in a second shift. The funds will also be used to order a second robotic instrument which, when installed, will further increase capacity.

— JAB