GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Over the past few weeks, the percentage of positive COVID-19 cases has seen an upward trend in Wisconsin. That increase is leading healthcare officials to, once again, remind everyone to take steps to prevent the spread of the virus.
“That’s all we have is the basics, and we’ve tried to reiterate that since day one,” says Prevea Health CEO Dr. Ashok Rai, “Mask when you can, especially in a closed environment like workplaces or stores where you can’t get that good social distancing and the air circulation isn’t as good as it is outside…It only works if everybody does it well. I’m not saying everybody is perfect, I’m not perfect. Have I forgotten my mask once or twice? Yes, most definitely. But we need everybody to try their best and you maintain that distance and wash their hands. ”
While the largest percentage of cases in the state are now a younger demographic, Rai says there is still reason for concern – and to take precautions.
“[There are] more 20 and 30 year olds being tested and being positive versus maybe the 40, 50, 60-year-olds that we saw in the hospital and being tested positive earlier in the season of the virus,” Rai says, “We need you to do as well as everybody else is doing. When it comes to being safe and not only can 20 and 30 year olds get really sick, we’ve seen them get hospitalized even locally. But more importantly, it’s that next person or interact with.”
Rai points out that many of the hospitalizations and deaths in the Brown County area were loved ones of people who went to work and brought it home. There are concerns of a similar trend returning.
“Two to three weeks from now, we could be seeing a much different picture of very dangerous picture if we have 50 and 60 year olds vulnerable people being infected left and right – and those are the ones that come into the hospital and stay for months – and that’s we’re trying to prevent,” Rai tells the WTAQ Morning News with Matt and Earl, ” I think it’s really important to remember that you can do everything right and interact with people you love – and become infected and possibly die.”
Another major concern for healthcare leaders is the spread of information – and misinformation – through places like social media. Rai says that politicizing the issue is the last thing the health of Americans needs right now.
“There’s a lot of social media and politicians even that are saying you’re going to have an increased level of carbon dioxide your body or it’s going to hurt the amount of oxygen you’re getting. But if you’re masking correctly and doing it at times you should be doing it, that’s not going to happen to you,” Rai says, “The real point of phasing in was so you could find areas of concern and then try to figure out how to deal with that. So you’re not just opening up like we did and now randomly looking for what do we need to fix…All the areas we’re concerned about would have been addressed phase by phase. The areas like Texas and Florida and Arizona, they didn’t have an opportunity because it happened so quickly – and how this virus infects people – to really change their phases fast enough before their hospital systems were overwhelmed.”
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