The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued a Winter Storm Watch for our region beginning Wednesday.  Snow accumulation could range from twelve to eighteen inches through early Thursday. Intermittent power outages and road closures should be expected.  Travel conditions in the early afternoon are expected to deteriorate quickly with snowfall up to three inches per hour possible.  Due to current COVID-19 conditions, the Mifflin County Office of Public Safety does not expect to open shelters or warming stations.

Using a single ventilator to support two patients could be feasible in crisis situations involving a ventilator shortage, according to a team of researchers.  Clinical investigators from Geisinger partnered with Bucknell University and Kitware, a New York-based software company, to develop a computational model to simulate two patients sharing one ventilator.  The COVID-19 pandemic has created shortages of medical supplies and equipment, including ventilators.  Earlier this year, FEMA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued guidelines for ventilator sharing in cases of ventilator shortage.  The research team created whole-body physiological simulations of 287 COVID-19 patients with varying levels of lung function, and oxygen saturation index (OSI) that could be successfully managed using a dedicated ventilator.