PORT ANGELES – Clallam County health officials held a county-wide meeting Wednesday morning at the Emergency Operations Center to disperse the latest information on the coronavirus situation locally and dispel some falsehoods. We joined the meeting via conference call.
Health Officer Allison Berry-Unthank began the meeting by saying, given the spread of the disease in western Washington, she suspects that we already have COVID-19 locally that we don’t know about.
That said, she offered this advice:
“One message that we’re really trying to get out to the public is that most folks with COVID-19 will get better on their own and will not need health care. So folks with, you know, cough and fever generally do not need health care if they’re having mild symptoms. We are recommending that they stay home until they are free of symptoms.”
Unthank added that, contrary to what some people are saying, people who have no symptoms cannot spread the disease. She added that just because someone may have been in a room with someone that has the virus, that doesn’t mean they’re sick or a carrier.
Unthank says that COVID-19 is not an airborne disease, and can only be spread through droplets of moisture, such as being sneezed on, and only then if you are within 6 feet of a sick person for an hour or more. She adds that the disease can only survive on furniture or other surfaces for two hours.
She says that they are therefore not recommending any businesses or other public buildings be closed.
Another important point Unthank stressed has to do with the wearing of ordinary surgical masks, and a concerning shortage of the N95 respirators that, for now, should only be used by hospital personnel and first responders.
“The average person in Clallam County does not need to wear a mask to walk through their life. We do not recommend the public wear them because we need them for our health care workers. Also know that they don’t work if you wear them out in the public, so you are using a necessary resource for our Health Care staff in a way that is not helping. So we’re really trying to get that message out.”
Possibly most concerning of all is the shortage of tests available to health care workers nationwide. Unthank says that only the most severely ill who are suspected of having the virus will be tested at this time.
“No one who is not needing hospital level care is going to get tested for COVID-19 at this time. We can’t have people flooding in trying to get tested. We just don’t have tests for them. When it comes to testing, we do not have testing available. We just don’t. They are working on it and they are hoping to get it out. Unfortunately, I think, we’re hearing a sunnier idea from the feds than the reality on the ground. This is where we are. And I can tell you, you know, that’s terrible for the general public.”
Unthank reiterated that the best way to protect yourself from the virus is to wash your hands thoroughly and often, and to avoid touching your face with unclean hands.