They call it “CARD 36” over the radio. Emergency medical technicians sometimes don’t know if the patient they are going to help is either CARD 36 positive or negative, meaning febrile respiratory illness — the dispatch code for coronavirus in the Navajo Nation.
Either way, they have to don Tyvek suits, gowns, powered air-purifying respirators and gloves before meeting the patient as though the patient is positive for COVID-19.
“It really depends on the dispatcher,” said Geraldine Hernasy, who goes by Gheri Williams, an EMT basic at the Nation’s Emergency Medical Service’s Inscription House Field Office. She is originally from Window Rock and the Oak Springs area.
“They call it CARD 36 over the radio – positive, negative,” she said. “Some of them (dispatchers), they’ll get that information for us ahead of time. That way it gives us a heads up. It’s kind of like you’re walking into the hot zone.”