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A hospital in Metairie has come up with a plan that allows loved ones to be with their family members who are dying with COVID-19, the coronavirus that has taken too many lives in the state. The East Jefferson General Hospital has created a unit for those dying patients.

The pandemic has also created another important group of workers called “contact tracers.” They track down friends, family and colleagues of infected people to warn them they are in danger and urge them to quarantine.

The hospice unit at East Jefferson has been authorized by the state to operate through June, and the 15-bed unit received its first patients last week, according to a report in The Advocate. Heart of Hospice has partnered with East Jefferson and Bridgepoint Continuing Care Hospital to create the unit.

The virus has sickened at least 11,496 people in Jefferson and Orleans parishes, and state officials said 599 of those have died. Patients who are sick are treated in isolation, and that has separated them from their loved ones who haven’t been able to say goodbye.

The daughter of Tom Dempsey, former New Orleans Saints kicker, was one of those family members who didn’t get to tell her father goodbye. Like so many others in similar situations, she said the family just wanted Dempsey to know they hadn’t left him or forgotten him.

The Advocate said nurses, chaplains, social workers, certified nursing assistants and others from Heart of Hospice’s five-state network volunteered to relocate and staff the temporary ward at the hospital. Medicare and Medicaid cover hospice care.

Visitors will be able to spend time at the hospital with their loved ones after being given equipment designed to protect them from contagion. The chief medical officer with Heart of Hospice said it was time to provide care for vulnerable patients and families when it matters most, regardless of barriers that might stand in the way.

A spokeswoman for the hospice said new patients have arrived daily as the New Orleans area continues to grapple with the pandemic. Meanwhile, state statistics show closures and event cancellations have slowed the spread of COVID-19.

A global health professor at Duke University talked about the growing need for those contact tracers. The Advocate said they have been used in Louisiana before to stem the spread of infections like syphilis by tracking down their sexual partners and urging them to seek treatment.

The special COVID-19 unit at the Metairie hospital and the work of contact tracers are two examples of some of the good news coming out of a serious crisis.