03-24-2020 A MESSAGE FROM WALVAC - RESPONSE TO COVID-19 OUTBREAK
WALVAC Response to the COVID-19 Outbreak
The Waldwick Volunteer Ambulance Corps Members will continue to offer transportation of patients to local hospitals in cases of emergency, but patients should realize that local hospitals are overrun, and there are risks you take being admitted.
The Waldwick Volunteer Ambulance Corps DOES NOT perform any COVID-19 testing. We will take vital signs (heartrate, blood-pressure, oxygenation) within our scope of practice as EMTs
If you ARE SHOWING MILD SYMPTOMS of COVID-19 (Fever, chills, nausea), the best place for you to be is in your home. Call your local physician or visit the state’s website: https://self.covid19.nj.gov. Our EMTs cannot offer you any medications, or specific care for COVID-19. Additionally, you will NOT be seen any faster, nor will you arrive any faster to the hospital, than you could have if you were transported by a family member.
Please use 9-1-1 for LIFE THREATENING EMERGENCIES. Examples of this include, but are not limited to (severe difficulty breathing, cardiac issues, poisoning/overdose, seizures, uncontrollable bleeding, etc.)
Our squad has decided to limit responses to 2-person crews. Additionally, we do NOT have the manpower currently to run more than 1 call at a time. If we are called to a home by someone who is only experiencing mild flu-like symptoms, this may delay response to TRUE EMERGENCY SITUATIONS
When calling 9-1-1, you WILL be screened. Answer all screening questions TRUTHFULLY, for the same reasons above.
When 9-1-1 is activated, the response to your home will include officers from the Waldwick Police Department, as well as members of the Waldwick Ambulance Corps, and in some cases, Paramedics from a local hospital, possibly further exposing all of these first responders and potentially removing them from duty. Please consider this risk carefully when calling 9-1-1.
The Waldwick Ambulance Corps, along with our family at the Waldwick Police Department, are in need of the following supplies, all which can be donated to the Waldwick Ambulance Corps. Please contact us at [email protected] if you can assist:
o Masks: N95, Surgical, etc.
o Isolation / Surgical Gowns
Remember, we are ALL in this together. The members of the Waldwick Volunteer Ambulance Corps, as well as the other first responders are here for you now, as we have always been. During this time of uncertainty, please help us help you!
Address/Location
The Borough of Waldwick, NJ
15 E Prospect St
Waldwick, NJ 07463
Contact
Emergency: 9-1-1
TEXT-A-TIP - Text TIP WALDWICK followed by your message, to 888777