Local health official updates supervisors about illness, precautions
There are no cases of coronavirus in Yuma County currently, but health officials are closely monitoring the situation.
At the Yuma County Board of Supervisors meeting on Monday, Diana Gomez, the director of the Public Health Services District, delivered an update on the county’s preparedness in the case of pandemic, a scenario that county officials have been considering since the spread of the coronavirus.
“We’ve been hearing a lot from people who are concerned, and our priority when this happens is to get out as much accurate information as quickly as possible,” Gomez said. “We hear a lot from people who read something on social media that isn’t true. It’s good to have a source you can trust.”
Gomez said to listen to information from agencies like the Center for Disease Control or the Arizona Department of Health Services. The county also set up
a webpage to concentrate all the information that they have about the spread of the coronavirus and the county’s response.
One fact that she pointed out as being commonly misinterpreted was the number of cases.
“The number of cases will go up as the testing increases,” she said. “What we pay closer attention to is the rate of infection. The number of people getting the virus says more about how it’s spreading than the number of people we find out have the virus.”
Gomez also emphasized the importance of taking account on an individual level for the spread of the virus.
“What this comes down to is personal responsibility,” she said. “If you’re feeling sick, don’t go into work. If you have a cough, cough into a tissue and throw it away.”
She repeated the common warning of using hand sanitizer - alcohol based and over 90% alcohol - and to avoid touching your face. This is flu season, she said, and the best way to control infection is to take individual precautions.
The common flu, she said, has had a more lethal effect. The coronavirus currently has a mortality rate of 2%, she said, meaning that 2% of the people infected with the virus die. The common flu, however, has a mortality rate of 18%.
Another prevention method Gomez referenced is to keep an average distance of six feet from people and practice social distancing if you do feel sick. She said that it takes two to 14 days from contracting the virus before you start to show symptoms.
The first person to call if you do suspect you have the virus is your primary health care provider. It’s also important that you call instead of dropping by in person to reduce the chance of spreading it, and most doctors will tell their patients to stay at home and try to isolate themselves anyways.
It is still flu season, Gomez
mentioned, which means flu shots are available, although they don’t treat the coronavirus. However, she encouraged people to still get the flu shot if they haven’t already.
Gomez said that the PHSD is updating their webpage daily and keeping a close eye on any information relevant to Yuma County. Arizona does have six confirmed cases of the coronavirus, but Yuma has none. The US has at least 600 cases and 26 deaths from the coronavirus.
The coronavirus is a distinct type of flu, but Gomez said that virus is expected to follow seasonal patterns of the flu, which is to say that its effect will recede in the hotter months, likely by May. In that time, the virus will spread, she said. Gomez recommended sticking to the personal precautions most people are taking including wiping objects down with disinfectant wipes if they’ve been touched frequently and staying home if sick.