University of Rochester Medical Center

A psychiatric inpatient unit for people with COVID-19 at the University of Rochester Medical Center aims to treat patients while preventing an outbreak. 

Psychiatrist and family doctor Kevin Brazill oversees the unit. Every person who is admitted for care is swabbed for the coronavirus, he said; if they test positive and are asymptomatic, they are sent to this unit.

“Basically what we’re trying to do is prevent anyone who may be COVID-positive from inadvertently spreading the virus to other people,” Brazill said. 

Pediatric Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (PMIS) is a new illness associated with COVID-19 that doctors in Rochester are trying to understand.

There have been more than 100 cases of PMIS in New York state, mainly pre-teens and younger children.

“We’re working with multiple federal and state agencies to document and try to identify all the symptoms and signs that bring kids to us with PMIS,” said Dr. Patrick Brophy from the University of Rochester Medical Center.

The University of Rochester Medical Center and Rochester Regional Health are among the institutions partnering with the drug company Pfizer and the immunotherapy company BioNTech to test a group of COVID-19 vaccine candidates.

Rochester Regional Health and the University of Rochester Medical Center can resume elective surgeries after receiving clearance Wednesday from the state health department.

The state cleared hospitals in 35 counties, including Monroe and all of its adjacent counties, to begin scheduling those operations again, determining that they are “without significant risk of [a] COVID-19 surge in the near term.”

Monroe County and hospital system officials detailed their plans Friday morning for what they will do if an influx of COVID-19 patients overwhelms local hospital capacity.

County Executive Adam Bello said the "surge capacity" plan would add more than 2,000 hospital beds, which would potentially double the number currently available.