Hello and welcome to PBS39n WLVT was community updated coronavirus.

It's presented by Capital e Cross and brought to you wh help from our community.

Harner Lehigh Valley Health Network.

We are coming to you live m the PPE Public Media Centen Bethlehem.

I'm Brittany Sweeney.

Our guests today include a doctor whose family in Inds dealing th a Catasauqua sue and coronavirus infections.

How she's not simply standg by and watching.

Also with us is someone whe job went away with the lockdown's.

Her story of reinvention ad how she got there.

Our guests will be with usn just a moment.

If you have a question, ple give us a call.

The phone number is 44 eigt two one zero zero zero eig.

We'll answer some of your questions live.

Plus for coronavirus updat, be sure to sign up for our newsletter.

Now, you can do that at our website coronavirus Lehigh Valley .org.

You can find helpful information there in both English and Spanish.

Now let's take a look at today's top headlines.

The seven day moving averaf cases in Pennsylvania is dn 15% from a week ago and cos as demand for vaccine alsos fallen.

Today, the state reported 7 new coronavirus cases and 9 more deaths to date.

Nearly eight and a half min vaccinations have been givn with 49% of the population receiving at least a first do.

Over 3 million people are y vaccinated.

The Bethlehem Area School District will host a vaccie clinics for students and parents on Monday, May 10t.

The vaccines will be availe to all high school studente 16 and up.

That's students from any school, not just the city'o public high schools.

Superintendent Joseph Roy s getting teens vaccinated is one way to, quote, finish e fight.

So students, my message to.

If you want to get back toa normal marching band next , if you want to get back toa normal course, if you wantr sports teams to not have to worry about quarantining ad stopping practices becausee person is positive, you neo get vaccinated when you're vaccinated, even if you're exposed to a positie perso, you don't have to quaranti.

So this is critical to getg us back to as normal a schl year next year as possible shots will be given from fr to six pm on Monday, May 1h in two locations at the Frm High School Gym and the Liy High School Library.

u canegister for the clinics at Basti schools, , or by calling six one zero eight six five seven zero t three Rite Aid says walk i.

Vaccines are available nowa limited basis in all of its stores.

The retailer says schedulig appointments in advance is recommended in order to ree wait times and guarantee availability.

But they're also accoodatig walk ins to support customs who need flexible times or don't have internet access.

Reading encouges those interested in a walk in vae to contact the local store first to confirm availabil.

And state officials say employees of a vendor paido conduct Covid-19 contact tracing may have compromisd the private information oft 72,000 people, the State Hh Department says workers at Incyte Global disregarded security protocols in its e contract.

The company acknowledged it mishandled sensitive data d has apologized the companys contract expires in three months.

Let's meet our guests for e day.

Dr Ronja Gupta is a hematologist and oncologist with LVHN Lehigh Valley Car Institute.

Dr Gupta grew up and receid medical training in India d is now trying to help peope there as hospitals are ford to turn people away.

Also with us is Elisa Jord.

She lost the job she lovedn the hotel where she workedt down.

It may have been a blessinn disguise.

We'll talk to her in just w minutes.

Thank you both so mh for joining us today.

LNA, as I said, will be wih you in just a couple of minutes.

But we're going to start ty with Dr Gupta.

Doctor, thank you so much r joining.

India is suffering a humanitarian crisis with or 300,000 Covid-19 cases and0 deaths every day.

It's a place you know well.

Your family is there.

It must be incredibly frustrating and stressf jut as we in the US seem to be making gains with the vacc, you're trying to help loved ones in a dire situation thousands of miles away.

Let's start there today.

What has this been like for you?

It has really been a Reporr Corps for me Bethlehem.

Thank you for having me heo share my story.

You know, I was actually supposed to fly to India t, believe it or not.

But because of the current situation in India, I cancd my program initially.

There was a disbeliefhen yu started seeing the cases gg up and then gradually, you know, there was sadness.

There was anger as to why e were having all of this sue in the cases and it was a n surge.

I mean, we are drowning.

We have Covid on a war foog in India and we are not abo handle all the situations.

So there's a crisis going n and I'm very stressed out.

My morning starts by talkio my family members.

I look at the WhatsApp ande who all I requiring my help callin people on my way ino the hospital on my way outm the hospital during the eie day in the hospital.

I'm checking my phone to se what is going on.

So it has been very, very stressful.

Dr Gupta, I can't even imae I want to talk more about t and how you're communicatig with your family at this p. But first, I want to pointt that there's reports from e White House that the presit is set to ban travel from a to the US to stop this from coming into the US.

That's supposed to take eft on May 4th.

How do you feel about all f that?

Do you think that's the rit decision at this point?

Yeah, I think so.

I mean, as mh as I hate it, you know, my parents were supposed to come and visit, Moutet So so they have note able to come.

But I think that is the rit decision on the part of the White House on this travell increase the transmission f Covid from India to the US.

And we do not know why the Covid situation is so bad n India.

It sms to be more contagio, more sick people are happeg in.

Yes, and I think that is te right move to to preven transmission of Covid from India to us is suspected.

That's because there's different variants there tt are more contagious.

I think so.

I think so.

There's nothing else that s changed.

So we had the same surge le everyone else in the worldn India last year.

But situation was not this difficult or dire last yea.

So this year, this surge tt we have right now, everybos very sick.

The rate of hospitalizatios much higher.

Death is much higher.

So I think that this is probably because of the variance that we have and e have seen that world over K and South Africa and Luzere that the variance I'm contagious and more diffict to treat.

And how are you connectingh family there?

How are you able to reach t and help to the help the pe that you know there at this point?

So my main connection has n through either phone call r email is too slow for me to kind of work on on that WhatsApp has been really lifesaving.

So I think that has been or main channel of connection.

I like I said, I can make e calls through WhatsApp durg the day if I need to and we have groups on the WhatsAp.

I have my hospital, my medl student friends.

We have our WhatsApp.

We are sharing all the information what protocolsy have, what what protocols I have over here.

If there's a question thatI know answered about the vae or any treatment we initiad over there, you also tryino share if we have any resous as to where the beds are available inelhi or surrounding area.

So that's kind of what we e been using mostly.

Dr Gupta, I know you mentid that your parents are over there.

How much of your family isn India at this time and is anyone sick in your family Gamma So my entire family n India and mine and my husbs we only have two one cousid one niece in us, the rest entire family.

My husband's family's all n India.

Yes.

I have many family memberso have been affected by Covi.

I do have I had a niece whs only in her 30s who was vey sick and hospitalized.

Fortunately she just recovd and came back home on Tuesy without oxygen.

So that was a heads up for.

I have a family of my unclo is very sick about five ofe members were sick.

Three ofhem have recoveredo William Haws, but one is sl kind of serious.

But we are managing him ath oxygen.

I wish the best of them a speedy recovery.

I want to talk a little bit about the health care systm over there.

If you could describe to us what it's like what healthe is like and what was the readiness situation.

Could they handle a pandemc like this?

I know you said now the situation is more dire that was a year ago.

Was that because they weret prepared?

Could you talk about those topics Gamma So Albright oe health care system in Indi?

It's not bad.

I mean, among all the Soutt nation, India actually hase the most robust health cae systems.

So there are those governmt hospital that I trained, I trained in and they are vey well equipped.

But there's a lot of population.

We have a population of $14 billion, the entire treatmt or within is completely fr.

You don't need any insuran?

No, nothing.

So there are long queues ad Lyons over there, but all e treatment is available with that.

Alongside that we have the private hospitals and someh more expensive priva hospil than the others in in a gel sense.

And without the pandemic, health care system is quite robust and it's easy to actually get treatment or whether you don't have any retimed we have over here.

But I don't think that we e the readiness and the preparedness for the pandec of this one.

In this magnitude, we are t that we only have about 75o 90,000 ICU beds in the ente country.

Inhe entire country.

We probably need in the orr of 200 three to 300,000 jut ICU beds and ventilators wh we do not have.

I don't think so.

With the type of pandemic t we have, which requires a t of ICU ventilators, all oft specialized care, we are nt ready foror this pandemic n India at this time.

And what about vaccination?

Obviously in the US we're Obviously in the US we'remo vaccinating people and getg a lot of the population vaccinated.

What's like over there whet comes to vaccines Gamma So again, India started off ay well with the vaccination program.

It was actually one of the largest producers of vacci.

So we have a system instite in Funi in Maharashtra whee were making the AstraZeneca vaccine that is distribute, although we also actually e our own individual vacciney the name of vaccine, whichs very effective.

In fact, it has been showno be effective against the variants also.

But the problem is the population then we startede vaccination.

We started in January.

The health care workers std and by March 1st we started vaccinating of elderly fol.

We actually then we startee started doing for the numbf vaccines given were the hit in the entire world so far.

As far as I know, we have vaccinated 114 million peoe as of today.

If you look at just the 140 million number, it looks la very impressive number.

But if you look at the population, 1.4 billion pee that need to be vaccinated, peanuts so that is one of e problems.

I also strongly feel that e vaccines that we have in I, especially the AstraZeneca, which is the one one that s been most commonly given in India, is not as effectives it should be against the variance.

I, I know personally many people who go out of vaccie and now infected with CoviI believe that many health ce workers do you have an outk right now with people gettg vaccinated even with the AstraZeneca shot Gamma Do u think that the situation wl get better as more people t vaccinated?

So the other observation Ie made and that is true everywhere in the world, en in the US being a healthcae provider, I do recommend ay vaccine to be given whatevr you can get that the efficy is 70% or 95% just becauset reduces the severity of the disease.

And I can tell you that I e two families in my own household, one of my uncle, both my and my uncle were y vaccinated with the AstraZa vaccine and they only had d symptoms that they recoverd very quickly.

And my other uncle's famil, which Iold you before, with five or six family memberso are sick, they did not gety vaccination.

They were very skeptical at getting the vaccines and there's a lot of severe die over there.

My niece also she was youno she did not get the vaccin.

So for her parents will lie with but not vaccinated wih one shot and they did not t infected.

So I really think that vaccination is very import.

And no matter whether the vaccine is AstraZeneca or vaccine or any other, we nd to get the shots into the s as soon as we can.

What is the impact of the current situation?

Obviously, you only have so many personnel that you cae to to vaccinate the we havl hands on deck for taking ce of the sick people right n. So the vaccination has taka little bit of backseat, but everybody is still trying y hard to vaccinate.

Now, 18 plus stopping me f. That is Saturday Tim Murtah Atim, anybody who is 18 pls then get a vaccination.

I'm being told, though, tht there are so many vaccinatn centers that are being clod because they are just not enough personnel to vaccine skeptical of going out of e house or get the vaccinati.

Even my own sister in law,e is not planning to go and t the vaccination until later part of me when the situatn gets better.

Dr Gupta, I want to talk me about this, but we have a k caller who wants to ask a question.

She says she's 85. now.

Can she get vaccinated Gamo so the right question to ak because I'm a medical oncologist.

So yes, we are recommendinl our patients to get the vaccination.

Even if you are on chemotherapy, the only thig that we have done differeny is that I do tell my paties not to get the vaccine on h same day that they are getg IV chemo just because if yu have a side effect like you have fever or som other sie effect, it will be difficuo know if it is happening frm the chemo or from the vacc.

But there is no other contraindication.

This is just that we are bg very safe about it.

So there is no contraindication.

There are only very limited type of chemotherapies thae are a little bit concerned about, like with toxin.

Some of the chemo is that e use in someeukemia and lymphoma.

So you must check with your medical oncologist hematolt if you can get the vaccine.

But otherwise it is very s. We highly recommend our patients to get the vaccin.

Dr Gupta, we have to move o our next guest.

But before we do, can you t quickly tell us how peoplen help the situation in India players?

We really all need so thats pandemic should be over sor than later.

But we have the American Association of Physicians f India on upby they are takg donations and they are usig their donations to purchase oxygen, oxygen cylinders, medications like Remdesivi.

They have they are very reliable.

In fact, they have sent ths week itself more than 4000 oxygen and oxygen constantf India.

One shipment went today.

So that's a very good sign.

Savea International escapeO International is another organization which is very reliable and people can do donations through that organization.

Also, Dr Ronja Gupta from Lehigh Valley Cancer Insti.

Our thoughts and prayers wh your family.

Thank you so much for joing us today.

Thank you.

So much, Pat Toomey.

Thank you for your wishes d inputs.

And we continue this commuy update on coronavirus on P. You can hear the reboard oe radio tonight at nine 30 o1 3W Elver.

Now let's bring in our next guest, Al ANIZDA.

Gordon was hitting her stre with a great job at the Doubletree Hotel in downton Reading.

Then the pandemic hit.

The hotel had to let her gd like so many of us, nothing seemed certai ANIZDA, thank you so much for joining us.

I know you put your people skills to work and you're g to share some advice today.

But let's go back to what u felt when this job you lovo suddenly wasn't there any .

Can you take us back to the beginning of the pandemic a Sure.

OK, can I tell you that the hotel was definitely sometg that I was so passionate a. I love my position as the director of human resoues t the Doubletree.

I remember the day and I ws told that go home.

We'll see.

You may in about two weeksa month when this is all over with.

And that was not the exact timing.

About a month after receivg the news to come back two s later, I got a letter in te mail stating that my positn was eliminated and my world just kind of fell apart foe moment.

Sure.

I couldn't even imagine Inw a lot of people in the beginning of the pandemic.

Unfortunately, this was the situation for a lot of the.

How did that feel?

What was your initial thout when you got that letter Ga I was devastated.

I'm a mother of four child.

My husband also worked at e hotel.

He was also let go as welld I struggled with it for a w days.

But I also knew fromhat I learned that there was goio be a lot of people in thise situation and I needed to p into action as quick as I could.

I was just going to ask hae you heard many stories like your own?

It sounds like your husband a similar situation.

I know many companies had o make those hard decisions t then devastated family.

So what did people say to ?

Did anyone else go throughs with you?

Yes, I had a lot of coworks went through it with me.

I had a lot of HR managerst I'm very close to that were shattered because their companies werelosing down.

They were filing bankruptc.

They were losing people tht were like family to them do this pandemic.

So it was very challengingo just digest everything thas going on because we didn'tw what this was all about anw long it would take for us o move forward from this pandemic.

And what was the personal ?

I know you said your you he children.

Your husband also lost you% job.

What were some of the conversations you had to he in those first weeks after losing that job?

Yeah, it was tough.

We had a family meeting juo kind of regroup with every.

You know, my oldest is 19.

He was working at a Langrne organization that was food boxes.

So we became those families that needed that support.

My children were no longern school.

Home schooling was a town.

I was just trying to get everyone on top of this ney of living.

And it was very hard to jut adjust with having childret home and being home with everyone.

But it also was very, very inspiring to have that timo be with my childre when ths world was in chaos.

Sure.

Stay optimistic for that.

But then I'll quickly you adapted you kind of I knowa pivot.

You kind of pivoted.

You went into a new career You reinvent yourself if yu will talk to us about starg your own business.

Yeah.

So I took some time treally dove in and absorb what was going on in the world aroud us.

And I went online and got certified in coaching, certified in mindfulness an management skills just kinf tied it up.

Everything that I've done n the past and wanted to push that forward, I know a lotf families will be strugglind will be in that same situa.

And I wanted to inspire th.

So I started Mr Gordon consulting Services, whichs coaching and development fr companies and individuals,d it kind of just went crazy.

I had a lot of people react to me, individuals, familis just wanting support, just wanted someone to listen to them.

And it's been great, wonde.

And then from there you fod another job and a job thatu say is your dream job.

It's you know, this was a terrible situation in the beginning.

But then it led you to this wonderful dream job.

Tell us about that.

Yes, I've always wanted to pursue a career in regional human resources and I had s great company, faith based organization reached out te on Melwood and it's been amazing.

I started with them in Junf this past year and I've grn and developed so much to me New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvan.

I've met so many great individuals and I still geo work from home and be a mod have that at home and life balance.

So it's been phenomenal on these that you turned yourf around very quickly.

Where do you find the dve, the motivation for those wo are going through this rigt now Gamma What would you tl them Gamma Keep your head .

Keep look into the skies.

And this happened for a re.

I think this brought my fay together.

Take this time to reveal yourself, gain new skills d go for what you're passione for.

Definitely.

There's a lot of positionsn right now in the market.

This is the time where youn do exactly what you want to and become who you want toe with this time that we hav.

And what keeps you moving y to day.

Some people need to sometis people find that hard to d. So what keeps you moving do day?

Finding that new job, creag this new business, how do u find that in you to keep gg Gamma I'm definitely lookit my children.

I know that they depend one and they're struggling a lt with adapting to what's gog on in the world around us.

So they give me my drive ay inspiration every day to kp pushing forward and make te best of the situation that we're in.

And what's the most criticl thing you've learned throut this entire pandemic?

We started, you know, backn March, everyting shut downa month later, you find out u no longer had a job.

So what was the most critil thing you learned during af that time?

Even up to today?

I would definitely say that Family First, you know, whn everything else is fallingn around you, your family is right there with you.

And in this situation, we e all together in these four walls,o we had no choice bt to get to know each other d make up for those lost tims when working and in the business, especially in hospitality, it's pretty mh 24/7.

And this allowed the time o just regroup, refocus and h forward with your family.

And like I said, continue o find that passion and whatu want to do in life.

Sure.

I'll need said before we lt you go today for those whoe struggling with looking foa new job, a new career, if they've been laid off, if y lost their job, what's the first step they should be doing?

What should they do first before they really take tht leap Gamma Definitely.

Just think about what you t to do at this point.

If you weren't happy in yor previous career and you wad to try something different, there's so many different resources right now, even h going back to school to puh you towards that dream jobr dream career or even to bee an entrepreneur, take those resources that are availabe right now and use them to e best of your ability and fd yourself a life coach thatn guide you through that.

If you need support, I'll d said Jordan.

We thank you so much for sharing your inspiring stoy today and best of luck to .

Thank you so much.

We want to thank our guestr being with us today.

We want to thank you for joining us for Community Update.

Coronavirus will be here am each Monday, Wednesday and Friday on PBS39 and on the radio at nine 30.

Those same nights on WLVT Arnoux.

We'll be back on Monday atr with Bethlehem Mayor Robert Donchez, if you have a question, you can leave itt our website, PBS39.org.

On social media or give usa call and leave it there.

two one zero zero zero eigt four PBS39 and WLVT news.

I'm Brittany Sweeney stay e and have a great weekend.