Expert: Young people spreading COVID-19

WEST CHESTER » The number people being treated for COVID-19 in Chester County hospitals and hospitals throughout the region has declined recently, and people succumbing to the disease is also ticking downward. And that’s because younger people are getting it and have am much better chance of surviving it.

“We have seen a decline in numbers for all six of the Penn Medicine hospitals dramatically,” said Dr. Shafinaz Akhter, an expert in infectious disease at Chester County Hospital.

“In April we were treating more than 100 patients per day. Now, some of our hospitals have close to zero every day. Right now, a different population is getting it - younger people.”

Akhter said the population that can get the disease has shrunk. Some have died from it, others got it and developed an immunity, even if for a short term. Where in April, May and even June most of the positive cases came from those in their 70s, the ones getting it right now are in their 20s. These young people are either asymptomatic, but can spread it others, and have stronger respiratory system to recover from it without the need of a ventilator.

“We are no longer seeing congregate living cases like we once had,” Akhter said. “There were times we were getting eight to 10 patients a day from a single nursing home.

As of Wednesday, nearly 5,500 people in Chester County have tested positive for coronavirus this year, with 354 deaths. The 20 to 29 age bracket is at greatest risk for catching the disease, according to statistics from the Chester County Health Department.

The big issue right now at Chester County Hospital and others in the region is the lack of tests.

“Rapid tests exist, but every week Penn Medicine gets fewer and fewer of them,” Akhter said.”Every day we fight to get tests. There is not a day I am not telling somebody they can’t have a test. It breaks my heart because I believe everybody deserves a test.”

In Chester County, the average test turnaround is two to three days.

The FDA issued an “emergency use authorization” for remdesivir, an anti-viral drug that could help

coronavirus patients recover faster. The medicine isn’t a silver bullet, but it’s the first therapy that has shown success in clinical trials. There is one patient at Chester County Hospital being treated with remdesivir.

Akhter said that COVID is transmitted through droplets- this the virus is released in the respiratory secretions when a person with infection coughs, sneezes, or talks. These droplets can infect another person if they make direct contact with the mucous membranes, she said. If those droplets end up in the nose, mouth or eyes. Infection can also occur if a person touches an infected surface and then touches his or her eyes, nose, or mouth.

Droplets typically do not travel more than six feet and do not linger in the air. So, all this means that sticking to your clothes is probably not a main way that COVID is spread, she said.

Akhter said masks are generally most effective at stopping the spread of infection and play a smaller role in preventing the acquisition of infection. So, if someone is sick, the secretions are not being spread very well if wearing a mask. However, if someone around you is sick and not wearing a mask- they can still spread the virus.

“Remember that their secretions would still need to make their way to your nose, mouth, or eyes and this may be reduced if you are wearing a mask,” she said. But people often fiddle with their masks and touch their faces and don’t clean their hands as often as they should.