X-Ray Technician Lives In RV To Keep Small-Town Hospital Afloat

ACROSS AMERICA — Eric Lewallen, a radiology technician at Rush County Memorial Hospital in La Crosse, Kansas, exemplifies what the coronavirus pandemic has done to small-town and rural America. He lives out of an RV in the parking lot of the hospital in 1,300-person La Crosse because he is the only healthy hospital staff member who knows how to perform X-rays.

“I’m it,” Lewallen told The Associated Press.

“To keep a critical access hospital open, you have to have X-ray and lab functioning,” he said. “If one of those go down, you go on diversion and you lose your ER at that point. We don’t want that to happen, especially for the community.”

Residents of La Crosse can't get much else from going to hospitals in nearby, slightly larger, towns.

The Hays Medical Center, some 25 miles away in Hays, turned away 103 transfer patients in November, according to reporting from the AP. In the 14 years prior, it had rejected transfers just twice.

The Latest

Coronavirus case counts have topped 15,000 in the United States as the vaccine touted by Pfizer to be about 95 percent effective nears possible approval for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration. Documents released by U.S. regulators on Tuesday show the FDA has provided positive reviews of the vaccine, touting not only its effectiveness, but its safety, too.

The FDA is set to meet on Thursday on the possibility of approving an emergency use of the vaccine.

Until a vaccine is approved, state and local governments continue to enact restrictions to slow the virus' spread. Schools across the country have also taken a variety of different approaches.

The nation's two largest school districts are going in opposite directions in how they are dealing with the coronavirus crisis. In New York, it was back to school Monday for many of the younger students in the city. The same day, Los Angeles public school officials said all students will need to revert to online learning for at least the rest of the semester as case counts surge across California.

The virus has struck every part of society, having an amplified effect on the most vulnerable.

In Illinois, an outbreak at the La Salle Veterans Home has turned into what Gov. J.B. Pritzker called the "worst-case scenario." Thirty-two residents have died, and nearly 40 others have tested positive for the virus at the state-run home.

Help could be on the way for some in the next coronavirus relief bill, but not for all.

Lawmakers on Sunday closed in on a proposed COVID-19 relief bill that would provide roughly $300 in extra federal weekly unemployment benefits but not another round of $1,200 in direct payments to most Americans, according to The Associated Press.

The state legislature in Arizona has shut down for an entire week due to 15 Republican lawmakers' recent contact with Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump's personal attorney, who was hospitalized Sunday with COVID-19. A few lawmakers in Georgia have been urged to quarantine after their contact with Giuliani on Thursday.

"We're clearly disappointed that Mayor Giuliani disregarded the health and well-being of others by not wearing a mask when it clearly would have been appropriate," Georgia state Senate President Pro Tem Butch Miller, a Republican, said on Monday.

In the Midwest, there have been some sign of progress as the virus spread there slows.

Seven states in the region have seen a sustained decrease in case numbers over the past 14 days, according to The New York Times, something health experts say is not necessarily definitive but is undeniably encouraging.

Cases in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota all began climbing after Labor Day, as cold weather pushed people in the Midwest indoors. The situation in South Dakota is bad enough that a number of patients have been flown out of state for treatment because the number of intensive care beds there have continued to dwindle, the Argus Leader newspaper and others have reported.

As numbers dip slightly in the Midwest, a new state has taken over the grim distinction of having the most cases per capita. Rhode Island, with 110.3 cases per 100,000 people, had the most cases per capita as of Monday, according to data from COVID ActNow. The Ocean State has seen a 48 percent increase in new cases over the past week, data from The New York Times shows.

Minnesota and South Dakota are the states with the next most cases per capita, COVID ActNow shows.

Meanwhile, as the nation's presidential leadership switches from Donald Trump to Joe Biden next month, so will the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, a Harvard University infectious disease expert, will take over leadership of the CDC from Dr. Robert Redfield, Biden announced Monday. Walensky has devoted her career to combatting HIV/AIDS, according to a report from The Associated Press.

Newest Numbers

At least 1,324 new coronavirus deaths and more than 185,552 new daily cases were reported on Monday, according to a Washington Post database. Over the past seven days, the United States has averaged more than 200,000 cases each day.

As of Tuesday, 45 states and Puerto Rico remained above the positive testing rate recommended by the World Health Organization to safely reopen. To safely reopen, the WHO recommends states remain at 5 percent or lower for at least 14 days.

More than 15 million people in the United States had tested positive for the coronavirus as of Tuesday afternoon, and more than 284,400 have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Stay up to date on the latest coronavirus news via The New York Times or Washington Post.

Read More From Across America:

• Georgia Coronavirus Record High May Be Start Of 'Thanksgiving Surge'
• Coronavirus May Claim Thousands Of Lives In Los Angeles This Month Alone
• Public Schools In D.C. To Start New COVID-19 Testing Protocol
• Officials In Jersey City Shut Down Restaurant After Republican Event
• County In Maryland Shatters Single-Day Record For COVID-19 Infections
• Colorado Gov. Polis' Husband Hospitalized With Coronavirus
• Los Angeles Schools Shutting Down Campuses During Coronavirus Case Surge
• Rhode Island Has Most Coronavirus Cases Per Capita In U.S.
• Georgia Legislators Urged To Quarantine After Contact With Rudy Giuliani
• 'Get It Over With': Pastor Tells Congregation To Get Coronavirus