A side effect of the pandemic: Emptier emergency rooms

UNEXPECTED SIDE EFFECT: Dr. Laura Forman, chief of emergency medicine at Kent County Memorial Hospital, says visits to the hospital’s emergency room have dropped by nearly half since the first cases of COVID-19 appeared in Rhode Island. / PBN PHOTO/ELIZABETH GRAHAM
UNEXPECTED SIDE EFFECT: Dr. Laura Forman, chief of emergency medicine at Kent County Memorial Hospital, says visits to the hospital’s emergency room have dropped by nearly half since the first cases of COVID-19 appeared in Rhode Island. / PBN PHOTO/ELIZABETH GRAHAM

Dr. Laura Forman, chief of emergency medicine at Kent County Memorial Hospital, is used to seeing about 200 patients a day come through the hospital’s emergency department. Over the past two months, those numbers have dropped by nearly half, to about 100 to 120 daily. “People have been staying away; they’re worried they’ll get COVID-19

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