(Undated)– While the confirmed numbers of positive COVID-19 cases in the area remain relatively small, public health officials say that’s very likely to change over the next several weeks. Dr. Thomas Getta of Palo Alto County Health System in Emmetsburg says it’s vital that we don’t fall into a sense of complacency because of that…
“Unfortunately we’re just beginning the concern regarding COVID. Our community, fortunately, is in a rural setting. We are not considered a population dense area, therefor we’re not seeing the COVID cases that other larger communities are. However, we can’t avoid it indefinitely. What’s happening in the surrounding counties as well as in other metropolitan areas which are closer such as Mason City, Sioux City, etcetera, you see in cases there and inevitably people that are in those environments are going to be coming here, so it’s very important to maintain social distancing.”
Dr. Getta says the primary concern is over what’s known as the R-NOT factor, or how contagious the coronavirus is, compared with influenza…
“For each person that gets the flu virus, they will transmit it to about one and-a-half other people. So therefore, if one person has the flu, over a two month interval, believe it or not 386 people can get the flu from that initial person. Let’s compare that to COVID. COVID has an R-NOT of 2.5. What that means is for every person that transmits COVID, they will likely transmit it to two and-a-half other people. If we extrapilate that out, that one person over two months will actually infect 99,000 people. It’s hard to believe but it’s true. And in that two month interval, over 20,000 people will require hospitalization from one person that had COVID. So it’s critical that we stay away from other people as much as possible.”
Dr. Getta adds the mortality rate with coronavirus is also considerably higher than with influenza…
“It turns out that one out of 100 people die from the flu. Fortunately it’s rare. Typically it occurs in higher risk patients and the elderly population. But with COVID, they’re estimating at a minimum of one percent. 10 times more people will die from the COVID virus opposed to the influenza virus. In Italy they’re quoting the three percent fatality rate versus the one percent that I already mentioned. But Italy’s different. They have a very dense population. People tend to have a lot of family gatherings, and that’s a good example for us to stay away from large groups including family members.”
Dr. Getta adds testing for coronavirus remains very limited and that patients must meet certain criteria in order to qualify for testing.
