GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) - As the United States reaches 100,000 deaths related to the coronavirus pandemic, communities are addressing the need to be safe as the summer activities heat up.
Prevea President and CEO Dr. Ashok Rai joined us on Action 2 News This Morning to talk about staying safe in public, pool safety, testing, and the proper way to wear a mask.
100,000 DEATHS IN THE UNITED STATES
"It's a pretty significant number. I think what's even more significant about the 100,000 outside of it being such a huge number of people, is the short time it happened in, and we're still going to have more death. So to have 100,000 lives affect us in four months, if you think about some of the worst wars that we've had to go through and how they've stretched over years to lose half as many people, when we look at 100,000 lives due to this illness, people may compare it to lives lost to other illnesses--but it's important to remember that's in a very short time. And unfortunately, more death will come," says Dr. Rai.
TESTING
"All of the [community] sites have closed, but the testing hasn't stopped. The state of Wisconsin still has supported our local health care systems and our ability to test. I can speak to what we're able to do at Prevea. It's very easy to get a test right now. There's still drive-up centers available throughout the county and throughout the state through us right now. It's very easy to get tested and you should be tested with any kind of symptom or if you've been exposed for a long period of time with somebody who has had COVID-19, you should be tested as well," says Dr. Rai.
"If you just go to myprevea.com or download the app you can register and then answer a few quick questions and pick the time you'd like to be tested. Drive up, get tested, drive away and your results will come right back to you in a matter of days."
"So I think it's really important to understand that testing has not ended in Brown County or the surrounding counties. It's just being handed over from the National Guard to us in health care so we can still make it easy for you, still make it safe for you. We still want you to get tested if you have any symptoms. Every system is doing it differently. I explained how we're doing it. It's important to get tested.
"Since we started the mass testing project both at the Resch Center and Casa Alba, first we were testing employees of certain companies and expanded it to the community, over 13,000 people have been tested. We're starting to get those results back every day. So far, our percent positive rate over the total number of people tested as now fallen below four percent--so that's another good sign. We've seen that progressively come down day after day, which is a good sign here in Brown County. But it also means the virus has not left us and will not for a very long time. So we still need to be safe," says Dr. Rai.
"It's also notable that over 100 people that were tested had no symptoms and were positive. So it's really important as we start to look at these percentages to be thankful that it's come down, but to understand that it's still in our community, even those without symptoms can spread it."
MOVING IN RIGHT DIRECTION
"Depending on the part of the country you're in, but let's think about Brown County and the state of Wisconsin, our negative trend line continues. It's not as steep as it was initially, and it's had some peaks in there, and that's not unexpected, but we had a good solid two weeks where we had a negative trend line, which means the percent of positive tests over the total number of tests being taken was negative. And that's a good thing. That was a sign that it's time to start to reopen. It didn't happen, I think the way we would like it, phased in, but it's happened now. Now we have to be ready for the outbreaks we're going to see and how can we control them," says Dr. Rai.
PARTIES
Videos have shown people gathering in big numbers for pool parties and other events.
"We hope that we could avoid that with better education and just better protections that communities have advised, but obviously people chose not to follow it. And you know that all it takes is one person to have mild symptoms to be an infected COVID patient that can spread it to 30-to-50-to-100 people in that room and how quickly. That's been demonstrated early on when we started talking about COVID. A meeting with 75 people in there, one person being infected, pretty soon 75 percent of those pepole were all infected within a week. So we know those types of situations exist, we hope they didn't and they don't continue. But we are worried about the types outbreaks we're going to see now because of it," says Dr. Rai.
SWIMMING POOLS
"You look at a pool as any other outdoor activity. You know when you're outside you have a little bit of, for lack of better words, Mother Nature's air conditioning. We have better air flow going on. If you can physically distance in there, limit the number of people in there, having lifeguards monitor that. And then keeping the seating, if you removed some seats every so often and spread people out, you can enjoy a good pool season. You just need to do the right things. I think sometimes people worry about the virus in the water. It's important to understand that chroline and bromine, the typical pool cleaners, are going to kill the virus. Don't drink the pool water. But once again, swimming is no more dangerous or no more safer than any other activity, as long as you can maintain that distance."
REMDESIVIR AND PLASMA
So at St. Mary's, we've given [antiviral drug] remdesivir 19 times and we've given convalescent plasma 40 times. Once again, Dr. [Manar] Alshahrouri has done a really good job of running that unit. And we're starting to see some good progress of people coming off the ventilator--and these people have been on the ventilator for a very long time--15 days, 20 days. So we're starting to see the benefits of plasma and remdesivir here locally in Green Bay," says Dr. Rai.
VENTILATOR IMPACTS
"Any time that you are going to be on a ventilator for, say three days, seven days, let alone 20 days, understand that your body is going to have significant effects. It's going to take awhile to recover from that. You're not moving your muscles like you normally would. In some cases, you're under sedation or even parts of your muscles are being paralyzed just so we could breath for you more efficiently. In those types of situations, although we provide physical therapy while you're in bed, it's nothing like moving around normally. So you'll start to see muscle atrophy. Understand that your stomach hasn't worked normally over that time. Your bowels haven't worked normally over that time. So there's a lot of negative effects from being on the ventilator for 15-to-20 days. You can recover from that, but it will take weeks for that to happen," says Dr. Rai.
ELECTIVE PROCEDURES
"We ramped up slowly. We started with 25 percent of our normal volume, then 50, then 75, now approaching 100 percent. We wanted to make sure we did it in the safest way possible. And it's proven itself to be very safe. With every staff member and every physician being screened on the way in, making sure they don't have any COVID symptoms, and then making sure every patient gets a screening test before their procedure and making sure COVID patients aren't in that same area, we've really proven that it's very safe to have your procedure now. We're starting to see more and more people come in for that."
FOND DU LAC COUNTY GATHERING CASES
Fond du Lac County Public Health says recent positive cases of COVID-19 have been linked to gatherings such as birthday parties.
"It's important to remember that every time we have a gathering, we're at risk for spreading COVID-19. We know we're going to get small breakouts. It's how do we actually do contact tracing appropriately? Which in Fond du Lac they did great. They were able to identify the people that were there and make sure they get tested and then isolate them. Test, isolate, trace is the important strategy here as we have those breakouts," says Dr. Rai.
ALLERGIES
"As far as allergy symptoms, it's important to understand that if you have any type of symptom that can be related to COVID-19, it's important that you don't attend an event like that, that you don't go to work, that you don't go into a store, and that you do get tested. And it's so easy to get tested," says Dr. Rai.
"Yes, some allergy symptoms are very unique to allergies, and some overlap with COVID-19. Some people talk about a tickle in the back of their throat and they feel it's just because of their runny nose from allergies, but that could easily be COVID. So it's very important to get tested with any type of symptoms. It's so easy to get tested right now. And it's better than putting other people at risk," says Dr. Rai.
DENTAL VISITS
"First of all, it's very important to remember that dental care is a very important part of health care overall. And our dentists locally here, through the American Dental Association and other professional societies, have looked at what is the best way to be safe. And the CDC has made recommendations as well about returning to health care, and dental care is part of that. You'll notice some different things when you go to the dentist and they're going to be screening people--their own people and people coming through the door. Masking more efficiently throughout. But it's important to have the dental checkup and your dentist is going to do the right things to keep themselves safe and keep you safe as well," says Dr. Rai.
GYMS AND FITNESS CENTERS
"Probably the best advice is to make sure your fitness center is following some really good rules around cleaning and physical distancing. If you've got 20 treadmills in a row, maybe only using 10 of them to give people space. To make sure that things are being cleaned well. That the staff is wearing masks. And that if you're going to be within six feet of somebody that you're also masking as well. Or get enough distance so you don't have to put a mask on. Those are all really important things. You can do a lot of things in a fitness center, even group fitness, but still maintain that distance. The classes may not be as big, you won't be as close to people, but you can still get a good workout."
HEAT AND MASKING
"I think we've found a lot of excuses for people not to mask and the heat may be one of them. I think it's important to understand that if you can maintain physical distancing outside that you won't need it on during that time period. But as soon as you walk in that store and you're going to be within six feet of somebody to have that mask on. But if you're an individual that's just standing alone, you don't have anyone around you, it's OK to take your mask off at that point. But masking when you can't maintain physical distancing is one really good way to prevent the spread," says Dr. Rai.
"Number one, if you're in that vulnerable category, the mask is not going to protect you. And thank you for wearing one. But you need everybody else to be masked to protect you. So you have to pick the right situations to go into. To make sure that you can take advantage of the great things that local small businesses and large businesses are offering, from curb-side pickup to delivery. But if you're going to go into a situation like that, go to a store that really is telling their customers you need to wear a mask. There are many in town, both small and large businessees that are doing that, and they're doing that to keep themselves safe and keep you safe as well. Or making sure they're at least making their staff mask. But if you're vulnerable, do your best to stay away from those situations and look for more unique ways to shop," says Dr. Rai.
CDC ON SPREAD FROM SURFACES
"They've kind of changed their language a few times on this, but it's important to understand that the virus can live on solid surfaces. What the CDC's research was showing is that it's a little harder to get it off a solid surface and be infected by it then it is, say the respiratory pathway. That's why masking is important. It's still very important to clean solid surfaces, because the virus can live on there. And it's still very important that after you touch a solid surface, it's important to wash your hands and not put your hand inside your mouth, or in your nose, because that's how the virus can come off a solid surface and into your body. It's less likely to be infected that way than maybe the respiratory pathway. But it's important to know that it's still a possibility, and you should still wash your hands very thoroughly."
PROPER MASKING
"Over your face, your mask should be covering both your nose and your mouth and not have too many air gaps. Especially for a guy who wears glasses like me, something that can crimp down over the nose is very important to try to prevent that air flow from going up and down to my glasses and trying to once again prevent air flow from going out. I've seen people wearing it somewhat incorrectly, just over their lips exposing their nose. You can go to a store and see that. Unfortunately I can't just walk up to people and tell them to fix their masks or tell them to put one on, but it's important to put it on correctly. If you have a lot of facial hair, it's important to make sure you can get that tight enough to get some sort of seal going on."
MEETINGS
"Whether it's a government board meeting or a work meeting, it's really important to understand that COVID-19 hasn't gone away. And if we have the opportunity to distance we should distance. So you have the opportunity to do good work and not have to be in the same room, if you can accomplish that you should continue it. We're doing the same thing with our own board meetings at Prevea. We'll continue to do it virtually until COVID-19 is gone or until the risk has gone down substantially. Which that hasn't happened yet. It's still in our society. We're seeing outbreaks locally. We're going to see more outbreaks because of certain behaviors and because of the fact that the virus is there. So if you have the opportunity to isolate, do it and continue to do your good work."
NATIONAL GUARD RESPONSE
"We're really lucky. And I really want to take this opportunity to thank the National Guard for all of their work. Four different units operated here. Two units in the first week, two units in the second week of being here. Great people. They brought in close to 60 people to help with the testing, the operations. Partnered with health care very effectively. It was really good that they were here to get us kick started in testing. But it's important to know that testing's not done in Brown County. And we should continue to get tested if we have symptoms. But really, our kick start wouldn't have been possible if the National Guard had not come in to help us out. So really do appreciate all of their efforts not only today, but every day here in Wisconsin."
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Dr. Rai talks positive trends and the continued risk of outbreaks - WBAY
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