Summer, and coronavirus, are here, NC. You may want to revise your travel plans.
Cameron Wolfe, an infectious disease specialist at Duke University, knows that people are tired of the precautions they’re being forced to take to try to contain the coronavirus.
But with his own family, he’s not taking any chances.
“North Carolina is in a ramping-up of this illness,” Wolfe said at a recent media briefing. “I don’t want my kids or my wife and I to inadvertently expose elderly individuals in our family to COVID.”
His family has decided to not visit relatives in the Midwest this summer and potentially carry the virus with them.
Wolfe is concerned that social distancing “fatigue” is resulting in laxer behavior that can increase the spread of the coronavirus. Local hospitals are managing well now, but a continuing rise in cases could overwhelm them. Last week, the state set records for the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 for four straight days. On Tuesday, that number went over 900 for the first time.
And on Wednesday, Gov. Roy Cooper is expected to announce a further loosening of coronavirus-related restrictions on businesses and public gatherings.
“We think we have a decent amount of flex in the overall number of beds,” Wolfe said, with about 80 COVID-19 patients currently at Duke Health. “But if that number were to creep up well above the hundreds, then you start having to say, maybe we need to look at tailing back.”
That could mean again reducing hospital operations to keep patients and staff safe. If hospitals run low on resources, communities may also consider going back into lockdown.
However, “despite hospitalization rates going up, that’s not been quite the same with mortality,” Wolfe said. Social distancing policies have given hospitals time to prepare, so they can better manage COVID-19 patients, and doctors have more information about treatments for the new disease.
Hospitals see younger COVID-19 patients
Newer hospitalizations also tend to be younger. Earlier in the year when there were more nursing home outbreaks, many hospitalized patients were seniors at greater risk of severe complications. Wolfe hopes that more widespread testing is helping diagnose people with COVID-19 earlier, which can improve treatment.
Dr. Sallie Permar, a pediatrician and vaccine researcher at Duke, pointed out that the wider spread of COVID-19 means hospitals are now seeing more severe cases and even death in children. Of particular concern is an inflammatory syndrome children may develop after recovering from the coronavirus.
The most severe cases in children tend to happen if they get treatment only later in the illness. Permar encourages parents to watch for high fevers, especially if a child has other symptoms like diarrhea, vomiting, or rashes as major signs of the post-infection syndrome.
“If you have a high fever associated with other symptoms for more than a couple of days,” Permar said, “you should get in touch with your primary care provider.”
But avoiding contracting or spreading the disease remains the primary goal.
“We understand now very clearly that this virus has a presymptomatic phase of shedding,” Wolfe said.
While there is some debate about the best practices for health care providers, the advice for people in everyday life is simple — wear a mask covering the mouth and nose. According to Wolfe, the consensus is strong that wearing any kind of mask, even fabric ones, is very good at preventing the wearer from infecting others.
Permar said “one of the most revealing stories” about the importance of masks came from a hair salon in Missouri. Two hairstylists who had COVID-19 worked on 140 clients before the stylists developed symptoms. None of their clients caught the coronavirus, which health officials say is due to the stylists’ good mask wearing and sanitation procedures.
Consider the level of risk
For families looking to have a bit of a normal summer, it’s important to realize the coronavirus is still present in North Carolina. At the media briefing, Permar encouraged everyone to consider the level of risk they are comfortable with as businesses reopen.
“My family made a plan to not go to the public pool this summer and we bought one of those blow-up pools for our back yard,” Permar said.
“If you live with an elderly person, or your kids visit their grandparents often, you may want to think about not exposing them to the extent that is allowed.”
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This story was originally published June 23, 2020 at 1:50 PM.