Routine health visits down since shelter-inplace, health officer says

Since the shelter-in-place order went into effect, fewer people have been going to the doctor for routine health maintenance, the county health officer says.

“Things like mammograms and colonoscopies and a lot of the pap tests — all of those things have declined,” said Humboldt County Health Officer Dr. Teresa Frankovich. “And that is another reason an ongoing shelter-in-place is not a viable solution.”

Nationwide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are reporting that the number of children receiving vaccines has seen a steep decline since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Vaccine Tracking System’s data “indicate a notable decrease in orders for” non-influenza vaccines through the CDC’s Vaccines For Children program.

“The identified declines in routine pediatric vaccine ordering and doses administered might indicate that U.S. children and their communities face increased risks for outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases,” states “Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Routine Pediatric Vaccine Ordering and Administration — United States, 2020” published in the CDC’s May 15 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Immunizations have seen a clear decline, too, which Frankovich said “is a huge concern moving forward,” but health care facilities and clinics have been ramping up reopening their routine preventative services “that people put on the shelf for a bit.”

They’re encouraging people to get all of those routine procedures done, including vaccinations, particularly “as we move into the fall,” Frankovich said it’s “important to get children vaccinated.”

“They’re creating a safe space to get the necessary services that are really lifesaving,” she said.

As people in the community start to return to some of their pre-pandemic routines, Frankovich said it’s important for people to start scaling up their social distancing and masking measures to minimize how rapidly the coronavirus, which causes the COVID-19 infectious disease, will spread.

Sheltering in place has kept COVID-19 from circulating in Humboldt County in the way that they were worried about, Frankovich said.

“It was very successful and has allowed us to have a relatively quiet period to get preparations in place,” Frankovich said. “We fully expect, as we open up and see increased travel in and out of the county, to see increased circulation, increased cases and an increase in deaths from the virus.”

There is no immediate solution to COVID-19 because 98% to 99% of the population isn’t immune and there isn’t a vaccine or medication to prevent severe illness on the horizon, Frankovich said.

“And really remaining in shelter-in-place for a year or 18 months is really not viable,” she said, because it’s causing “some unintended consequences of people not accessing care” and children being out of school.