Medical Dental Pharmacy Blog Board Locations Patient Center CoronaVirus Updates LEARN MORE waynechc 0 COVID Update April 14, 2020 Posted April 14, 2020 · Add Comment Here’s some quick updates on the pandemic: As of today, there have been no reported COVID 19 cases in Wayne, Piute, Sevier and Sanpete Counties. Social distancing seems to be working. The percentage of those being tested in Utah who test positive for the virus has remained steady at about 5%. We have not seen an acceleration in positive tests. We’ve seen a decrease in positive tests in Utah the past week. While this is encouraging, we have also seen a big decrease in the number of tests being done. The percentage of those tested who are positive for the virus has remained at about 5%. The virus is still out there! If you have ANY of the following symptoms, please be tested: fever, cough, shortness of breath, sore throat, muscle aches, chills, and decreased sense of smell or taste. Being tested will provide medical and government officials vital data in understanding what the virus is doing in our community. With this information we’ll know when we can safely begin to ease current social distancing restrictions. We are not short on testing in Utah. The state has the capacity to do 5000 tests a day but is currently doing less than 2000. We urge people with symptoms to be tested. Testing results are also returning more quickly. We would expect results for most within 2-3 days. To arrange testing, please call the Wayne or Kazan clinic. The cost of testing is being covered by insurance. If you do not have insurance, the State lab is doing the tests for free. If you have any of the above mentioned symptoms, please stay home until your test results are back. Especially avoid anyone over age 65 or those with chronic health problems! Governor Herbert has asked us to use face masks when frequenting retail businesses. Homemade face masks are acceptable. While these are not great at helping us avoid getting the virus, it can help us prevent spreading it should we be a carrier not having symptoms. The greatest risk of catching the virus will be from touching a contaminated surface and then touching our eyes, nose or mouth. Frequent hand washing and liberal use of hand sanitizer, along with avoiding touching our faces, will greatly limit our risks of catching the virus. This is still a very dangerous disease in our older population and those with chronic illness (unfortunately, most of our older folks have underlying chronic illness). Utah data shows a 23% hospital admission rate among those aged 65 to 84. Happily, we’ve only had 12 positive tests in those over 85, but half of these required hospitalization. Let’s do all we can to protect our most vulnerable! Current best practices discourages the use of hydroxychloroquine alone, or in combination with Zithromax, in non-hospitalized patients. Wide spread blood testing to see who has had the virus is still a few weeks away. Some recent reports suggest a vaccine as early as this fall. However, most likely it will be in early 2021. Jeff Chappell, MD Comments are closed. Popular Recent Comments Tags The Common Cold or Something More? The “common cold” is the most frequent acute illness in [...] Resume Your Normal Health Care Needs. Dear Wayne County Residents/Patients/Friends It is with excitement that I [...] COVID-19 Vaccine Update 3/9/21 Update on COVID-19 vaccine information. For the week of March [...] WCHC and COVID-19 We at WCHC wish to make you aware that all [...] RECENT POSTS Update from Dr. Chappell COVID-19 Vaccine Update 3/9/21 COVID-19 Vaccine Criteria 3/2/21 Resume Your Normal Health Care Needs. COVID-19 Vaccine Update 1/28/21 RECENT COMMENTS ARCHIVES August 2021 March 2021 January 2021 November 2020 October 2020 April 2020 March 2020 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 CATEGORIES Medical Uncategorized META Log in Entries feed Comments feed WordPress.org PRIVACY PRACTICES Copyright 2021 Wayne Community Health Center