Fairfax County has twice as many coronavirus cases as any other city or county in Virginia, which means emergency room doctors & nurses here are likely helping coronavirus patients everyday.

Emergency room nurse Sara Sousa admits feeling a little anxious before work these days, but she said it dissolves the minute she gets inside the Inova Fairfax emergency room.

“When I come in you see that same teamwork, spirits are high, people are motivated,” Sousa said. “They are together more than anything I’ve seen before.”

Dr. Kari Scantlebury, Inova Fairfax emergency room doctor, said she has seen and heard of the frightening conditions in some NYC hospitals right now from friends working there. But she’s cautiously optimistic we won’t see that in Northern Virginia.

“If you plan for the worst and we end up being nowhere near NYC volume or acuity, that’s fantastic,” Scantlebury said.

Scantlebury and Sousa said they do not fear for their own safety as they treat coronavirus patients. Along with wearing more protective equipment, they are doing some things differently. Nurses are being given their scrubs when they arrive at work.

“We’ll change into the designed scrubs and then at end of shift change and leave scrubs here and go back to our homes,” Scantlebury said.

Both women say they feel confident the plan in place will help in the more challenging weeks to come.

“Our job is the be there no matter what comes thru the door & staying focused on that is what gets us through every shift," Scantlebury said.

