Faith and family are two things that go hand in hand with Easter.

 

Beyond the religious connotations, the holiday is also a time for large family dinners, kids playing together outside and for many it is the unofficial start of spring.

 

Health experts at United Hospital Center understand how important this time of year is to so many people. They also understand how important it is to remind everybody how important the social distancing guidelines are as the world deals with the COVID-19 pandemic and how public gatherings that draw big crowds such as Sunday church services should be avoided.

 

“The Easter holiday is coming up but also as the weather changes, our natural progression with the seasons is to start getting together and have gatherings outside and letting kids play together,” said Jessica L. Harvey, D.O., United Hospitalist Physicians. “It is important, for no matter what your faith is, that people look for alternative means to gather, to exercise your faith and to check on one another because church isn’t just within four walls.

 

“We can support one another by checking on them even if they don’t have a smart phone or internet, certainly by just picking up the phone and calling them or leaving groceries on their doorstep. We need to as a community look for ways to continue social distancing as we move ahead toward a peak for West Virginia over the next month.”

 

Dr. Mark Povroznik, Chairman of Infection Control at United Hospital Center, reiterated how important it is to stay at home as much as possible and look for different, less public, ways to worship on a Sunday.

 

“Let’s start by saying why this is important by framing it,” Povroznik said. “Here is why we the public to stay attuned to why social distancing is so important and not just saying it, but doing it and let’s use the word religiously.

 

“If one person was infected, they would in turn infect 1.25 people. And over the next 30 days, if you are doing social distancing well, that’s about 15 people. Without doing social distancing, that same one person infects two and a half people. Then it grows to be 406 people over the same 30 days.”

 

Health officials across the globe have frequently mentioned the word asymptomatic while discussing coronavirus. A disease is considered asymptomatic if a patient is a carrier for a disease — such as COVID-19 — but experiences no symptoms.

 

Jonathan E. Stanley, D.O., UHC Infectious Diseases, said understanding the role asymptomatic carriers play is crucial in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

 

“Fortunately, West Virginia was the last state to have a positive case,” Stanley said. “As the weather starts to get nicer, people are going to start to get more active and get stir crazy because of the quarantine at home.

 

“The important factor to keep in mind is that some people are infected and are completely asymptomatic. It’s what you would call a symptomatic shudder. There are people that may have the virus but see no symptoms like the fever or the cough then they get around others, especially their parents, grandparents that are elderly and cause them to get infected.”

 

Povroznik added that the asymptomatic element to COVID-19 can not be emphasized enough.

 

“This is not theory, this is reality,” Povroznik said. “We are seeing it on a weekly basis. This is not theory that there are asymptomatic people out there. We have documented them. And it is not theory that if they go on and infect an elderly person or somebody whose immune system has been compromised, it is reality. It is reality that some of these people are going on to being as sick as you’re seeing on national television.”

 

Povroznik added that he understands not everyone can stay in their house for the entire wave of the pandemic but exercising precautionary measures are a must. Things like supporting the elderly and family members who shouldn’t be out by picking up their groceries or prescriptions or supplies and delivering it to their doorsteps. He also encouraged wearing a mask when you are out in a large public space and practicing good hand hygiene.

 

“I have been so impressed with the area businesses,” Povroznik said. “There is a realization there that to stop this, everyone has to do their part. I’ve never seen so many businesses as clean as they are and that needs to continue. But also, something like taking your shoes off before you enter your house.

 

“Our shoes do carry viruses. We are not used to thinking that way but we have to think that way. You have to think that if you are out in a large public space where people could be coughing and sneezing and you walk through those droplets, those droplets can live long enough on your shoes that you can walk back and plop your feet up on the coffee table and we start spreading things around.”

 

Stanley added that wearing a mask in public is not going to definitively prevent a person from getting coronavirus but it helps by preventing putting our hands in our mouths and noses.

 

Harvey said that she does think a lot of people are being very cognizant of social distancing and certain things in small crowds are fine as long as you remain smart about it and do it in short intervals. One example she used was the groups of people required to help distribute meals to students — an activity that is vital to communities.

 

They all agree though if social distancing does not continue to be paramount, things could quickly get worse.

 

Early Friday afternoon it was announced that part of the eastern panhandle had become a hot spot for COVID-19 outbreaks. By Friday evening, Governor Jim Justice had signed an executive order to further protect three eastern panhandle counties — Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan. To read more about that story, including the complete executive order, click HERE.

 

Povroznik said that if there are questions about any area of the state having the potential to become a hot spot, the answer is an emphatic yes.

 

“There is nothing about West Virginia that would separate us from Wuhan, China other than our nationality,” Povroznik said. “As this virus reacts, everything we have done has curtailed it not to be what it has been in other countries. So as soon as we ignore that, the virus will just spread the way viruses spread. We can’t ignore that fact.

 

“We have the definition out there. We need to keep giving examples of what are threats to social distancing. No faith based gathering, no family gathering, no group is immune to how the virus spreads. There has to be an acceptance and realization that a large percentage can be asymptomatic and then through an innocent gathering it leads to the more susceptible to have a more critical disease course.”

 

UHC did release some good news on the medical supply shortage issue on Friday with the announcement that decontamination of N95 Masks through the use of ultraviolet light germ-zapping robots has begun. To read more about that story, click HERE.

 

“We’re trying to keep ahead of the supply shortage,” Povroznik said. “One way we are doing it is by disinfecting masks for re-use, otherwise thousands of masks would go into the trash can every day, so we are able to extend the life of those masks up to six re-uses.

 

“We are not just doing it for UHC, we are partnering with our smaller hospitals to help them. The model we built, we have sent one to the eastern panhandle to help that facility. Camden Clark (located in Parkersburg) is operationalizing the process we have designed here. That alone can save a lot of masks and stretch this out so we can continue to give protection to lots of health care officials.”

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows Jessica Harvey, middle one is of Jonathan Stanley and third one is of Mark Povroznik. Photos courtesy of UHC.