More than 7,400 people likely caught the novel coronavirus while they sought care for other conditions in hospitals, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The Wall Street Journal reports.
- “An average of 120 patients a day became infected with the new coronavirus inside U.S. hospitals as the pandemic ebbed from its spring peak and rebounded into the summer,” WSJ reports.
These 7,400 patients likely caught the virus between mid-May and mid-July during the summer’s peak of the coronavirus pandemic.
- Hospitals struggled to stop the spread from within their own buildings, according to The Walltreet Journal.
- In fact, an analysis from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston found that two patients got COVID-19 from inside the hospital.
According to WSJ, the infections show how hard it has been for hospitals to adapt to the coronavirus pandemic and keep people safe from their normal problems.
But experts don’t want people to panic about going to the hospitals.
Dr. Meghan Baker, an epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, told The Wall Street Journal that avoiding the hospital is a ”bigger public health risk.”