Week 17 coronavirus news – Colorado and the nation, more good news about treatments

Outbreaks in Colorado

The Boulder County outbreak reported last week has now reached 100+ positive cases. This was basically a “frat party” congregation of individuals. Again, interestingly there was not an uptick in hospitalizations or deaths associated with this outbreak. This is really not surprising since those individuals were young.

A group of 150 counselors at Eagle Lake Overnight Camp, a Navigators.org camp, had 7 people test positive during a recent training session. A statement from the organization:

“This spread happened despite staff doing their best to self-quarantine before they came to camp, and despite our best, stringent efforts to maintain social distance, remain in family groups, wear masks, deep clean common areas, and more.”

These instances show how latent yet active this epidemic is still, even when doing everything right.

This underscores an important yet less commonly stated action, and that is, once you have ANY respiratory illness you must IMMEDIATELY self-quarantine, and let others around you know of your symptoms. They must also immediately start wearing masks and limit contact with others for at least the next week as well as practicing good hand hygiene and diligent mask wearing . Testing should also be performed immediately after symptom onset.

If you think you have COVID-19, please call. We can test you almost immediately, since we use drive-by testing, where we meet you in the parking lot and grab a quick nasal swab. This minimizes exposure to my staff, other individuals, and the office confines. We have plenty of test swabs, so there is no reason not to get tested if you have symptoms of COVID-19 or have been exposed to someone with COVID-19.

So what’s with the current uptick in COVID-19 infections nationwide?

As of this week, the evidence supports the current “uptick” in coronavirus infections appears to be most affecting those in their 20’s – 40’s, who have mostly ignored the current recommendations for face mask use, social isolation, and hand sanitation.

The bad news is that those in that age group are more likely to perpetuate the infection, possibly to those who are at risk for the more severe complications.

The good news is that we do not see as severe an uptick in hospitalizations or COVID-19 deaths. This means that those getting the infection and diagnosis of COVID-19 are younger and less likely to experience the severe complications of this infection.

The great and good news

We now have evidence that we can reduce the likelihood of getting hospitalized be at least 50%. There is also good evidence to show that, IF you get hospitalized and experience the severe complications of COVID-19, there is at least a 30% reduction in the likelihood of dying from that experience.

This is indeed very good news!

SO for those in my practice, CALL ME IMMEDIATELY if you think you have COVID-19. We will instruct you about what to do in terms of testing and treatment. Otherwise, I would recommend you contacting your PCP about your next steps.

Dr. Gipson