Deseret News will provide additional breaking coronavirus coverage throughout the day at this story. Check back often for more updates.
Robot helps treat coronavirus patients, protect health care providers
4:30 p.m.
A half-dozen tireless assistants are helping doctors and nurses treat coronavirus patients in Varese, Italy. They don’t need coffee or get paid overtime for endless hours in Circolo Hospital. The assistants, which are robots, simply need a battery swap to keep attending COVID-19 patients, Reuters reported.
The nursing robots are able to monitor medical equipment and patients can use the robots’ touch-screen faces to communicate with doctors. This allows human hospital staff to visit patients less frequently, reducing their risk of also becoming infected.
“Using my abilities, medical staff can be in touch with the patients without direct contact,” said a robot named Tommy to reporters.
The hospital is also using less personal protective equipment like masks and gowns.
More than 60 Italian doctors have died and 40,000 health care providers have become infected while treating coronavirus patients, according to Reuters.
College students have returned from spring break with the coronavirus
2:50 p.m.
College students who refused to cancel their spring break plans during the coronavirus pandemic — and were enabled by public officials who didn’t close beaches and bars — are now testing positive for the novel coronavirus.
Dozens of spring breakers have tested positive for the coronavirus after returning home, The Washington Posts reports.
Students, unconcerned by the growing epidemic and unfazed by a growing global death toll, declared “if I get corona, I get corona.”
At the University of Texas at Austin, 28 of 70 college students who flew together to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, have been confirmed to have the virus. Students that have not tested positive for the virus are being monitored.
Spring breakers from the University of Tampa and the University of Wisconsin at Madison also have the virus after returning from vacation, according to The Washington Post.
“The virus often hides in the healthy and is given to those who are at grave risk of being hospitalized or dying,” said Mark Escott, interim health authority director at Austin-Travis County. Four of the Texas students had no COVID-19 symptoms.
Officials are worried about the seemingly healthy passing the virus to someone that could have a much more serious or deadly reaction, like the elderly or immunocompromised.