TAMPA, Fla. — Look no further than the United States Veterans Affairs COVID-19 dashboard to see the surge in coronavirus cases among VA hospital patients.
At the time of this article, there were more than 70,400 cumulative cases of the coronavirus in VA facilities.
One month ago, there were 59,831 cases, meaning roughly 10,500 cases have been reported in the last four weeks.
In Florida, there have been 7,000 cases of the coronavirus in VA hospitals with 260 known deaths, 60 at the Tampa hospital and 42 at Bay Pines in St. Petersburg.
U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie spent Thursday morning at the James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital in Tampa to thank frontline workers for their response to the needs of veterans during the pandemic.
"I thanked them. I also said that they are some of the most agile and adaptable employees in the entire federal government," Secretary Wilkie told 10 Tampa Bay in an exclusive interview.
VA hospitals took aggressive measures in March when the pandemic first hit to protect patients and employees by limiting visitors and distributing personal protective equipment.
Secretary Wilkie believes thousands of lives were saved because of the proactive approach adding, "Tragically, we’ve had about 3,300 deaths. We have nine-and-a-half million veterans in our system."
According to the VA dashboard, there have been 3,785 deaths with cases now on the rise.
10 Tampa Bay asked Secretary Wilkie if enough is being done to protect veterans from the coronavirus. He said yes and added, "One thing I have to remind people when we talk about veteran infections. They equate American veterans with the soldiers and Airmen they see, Marines they see on military posts and bases. Our veterans live in the community. They’re going to be susceptible to the same trends when it comes to infections that their fellow citizens are."
In response to GOP fundraising events Secretary Wilkie has attended in recent weeks including a trip to North Carolina last week, Wilkie said, "That’s just a nuisance story. I’m happy to go across the country and help friends and in that case, it was helping a friend and did it with all the ethics rules followed."
Part of Wilkie's trip to Tampa was to remind area veterans to use the hospital and get the help and health care they need.
"I want veterans to know that we’re here. We’ve never closed."
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