When it comes to the end of the stay at home orders, or better said, gradually rescinded aspects of the stay at home orders; the real MEASURE of success will be realized in understanding the capacity, staffing and PPE stocked for at least a week's use in local hospitals. The PPE stocked at hospitals has to be restocked daily to maintain functional status.
This level of awareness of hospitals' capacity to care for people infected with COVID-19 is NEW and can be viewed as intrusive. But, local health officers can easily ask for daily accounting of all aspects required to protect lives. A hospital management employee could collect information about OPEN BEDS (both general floors, and unit beds), the number of patients infected with COVID-19, staff-patient ratio and the stock of PPE on hand. This information can be published daily to the community through a website and in newspapers. It would provide an understanding of the success of the roll-out when lifting of stay at home orders. At no point should Americans be in danger of death. Illness should not guarantee a poor outcome, but, one well handled by the local hospital.
Of course, the real safety is in testing, but, if testing isn't forthcoming there needs to be plenty of information so Americans can decide their path forward. While that is a horrible idea, people will risk their lives to provide for their families. If testing isn't going to happen then information about the hospitals' ability to take care of them is vital.A color code of preparedness issued daily by hospitals can be a good visual to allow Americans to know the status of DANGER to their health because of a stressed health care system.
The color code could resemble the color code used for terrorist threats.
