January 2020
5: World Health Organization announced the emergence of pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan, China.
31: United States declared public health emergency.
Mid-February 2020
Department planning began.
March 2020
8: VA Connecticut Healthcare System started active screening at main hospital entrance.
9: Daily department leadership calls began. First palliative care guideline issued.
11: Department in-person meetings and Medical Grand Rounds cancelled. Daily department survey started. Department-wide meeting held to discuss coronavirus science, and epidemiology; trajectory of outbreaks in China, Europe, Seattle, and New York; and Department preparations for inevitable outbreak in CT.
13: Human subject research paused where possible. Virology Lab started in-house testing.
14: First positive COVID-19 case reported at Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH).
16: Staff began to work from home. Conversion of patient appointments to telehealth began. YNHH leaders declared a Code D (disaster) and activated the Hospital Incident Command Structure (HICS).
18: NP-15 emptied with its patients moved to EP 6-5. All noncritical research suspended.
19: NP-12 and NP-14 moved to SRC.
20: Residency Match Day
21: One-year term extension announced for assistant and associate professors in specific tracks.
23: First COVID-19 positive patient was admitted onto NP-15. New rounding practices announced. Firm restructuring began. YSM released first list of COVID-19 research projects.
24: First patient died from COVID-related causes.
25: Blood drives started in conjunction with the American Red Cross.
26: Global Health webinar held: “COVID-19 Update: Caring While Keeping Safe.”
30: National Doctors’ Day. Task force created to address burnout.
April 2020
3: More YNHH units became COVID-19 restricted units. Bereavement program launched for COVID-19 positive deaths. Decompression huddles began for ICU staff.
7: Palliative Care and Geriatrics began consult triggers to address goals of care. Meals4Healers project started.
8: Passover
9: Communications scripts and training released to clinicians.
10: Yale New Haven Health (YNHHS) dashboard went live.
12: Easter
13: Critical care triage policy for COVID-19 positive patients and resuscitation policy distributed.
15: More than 34,000 outpatient telehealth visits conducted between YNHHS physicians and patients.
21: YNHH COVID-19 positive inpatients peaked at 450. YNHHS COVID-19 positive inpatients peaked at 638.
23: Virtual Medical Grand Rounds held: “COVID-19 Clinical Management at Yale: What We’ve Learned So Far.” 1375 participants attended the call.
27: Supportive Care Unit (SCU) set up on NP-4.
29: YNHHS discharged 1,500th COVID-19 patient from Yale New Haven Hospital.
30: Medical Grand Rounds held virtually: “Critical Care in COVID-19 Patients.”
May 2020
18: YNHHS discharges 2,500th COVID-19 patient from Greenwich Hospital. YNHHS announces its laboratories performed almost 15,000 COVID tests with 95% being resulted within 24 hours.
22: SCU moved to NP-12.
June 2020
4: Activation of daytime Tele-ICU in Westerly and Greenwich Hospitals.
11: Virtual Medical Grand Rounds held: fourth annual “Stories of Yale Internal Medicine.”
August 2020
9: YNHH reached lowest number of COVID-19 positive patients since pandemic began, at 6 patients.
17: Yale School of Medicine (YSM) and YNHH announced the start of Phase 3 of the Pfizer vaccine trial. YSM announced the COVID Gap Funding initiative in support of junior investigators.
September 2020
21: YNHH officially terminated Code D.
October 2020
24: Second wave of pandemic began.
November 2020
6: YNHHS moved into mitigation phase.
9: Marcella Nunez-Smith, MD, MHS, was named as co-chair of President elect Joe Biden’s COVID-19 Transition Advisory Board. YNHH returned to Code D status.
24: YSM clinicians, researchers, and educators sent an open letter to Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont explaining the impact that the current COVID surge had on health care systems in the state, and urging the governor to enact more restrictive measures.
30: Department physicians met with Governor Lamont and Department of Public Health Commissioner Deidre Gifford, MD, MPH.