Transcript:
I'm Dr. Hamilton-Stubbs' and I'm giving some COVID-19 updates. Today I want to talk to you about the changes in the testing that's being available in Virginia. If you have the symptoms of the coronavirus and you can check the website to get all the symptoms but we'll just run through it quickly. Confusion, fatigue changing the mental status, difficult to wake up, persistent cough that's dry, inability to smell, loss of smell, chest pain, shortness of breath, and changes in your bile, like diarrhea. If you've been around someone, you may be eligible to get tested and in order to find out where you can get tested you can go to the Virginia Department of Health website. What I did was I just googled VHD COVID-19 check and the department has a COVID-19 which is going to help you with identifying if you were at risk for having an infection it can also tell you where your testing can be done. When you go to the Virginia website and you want to find out where testing can be done, you can just go to the feature where you put in your zip code and it will tell you all the sites that are available around your area. So for example I checked it earlier today and I know that I can go right around the corner to one of the free or charitable clinics. I also know that there is testing available at CVS on Broad Street.
What happened on Sunday the 31st of May is the priority was listed identified and this was posted as an update. So there's high priority and priority cases. If you are hospitalized patient, you have high priority. Other people that have higher priority for testing include people who work at the hospital or first responders and people who are residents and in a congregate setting like a long-term care facility or the jail or some kind of group called have a high priority for testing and also the people who work at these facilities. If a person is uninsured or under insured they have symptoms they are high priority. The priority a group of people are just people with the symptoms that we talked about. Your health care provider can also make you a priority for testing if they feel like and this is indicated. For example if you are over 60, have some exposure, or if you have any of the diseases the comorbid conditions and you have some of the symptoms, or been exposed then your healthcare provider may suggest that you can get tested as a priority. Don't be surprised if you sent home and told to just do some treatments at home. But if you feel that you need to be hospitalized or you need more than what you can get at home I say be an advocate for yourself. Ask to speak with someone else, ask to speak with their manager, but one of the problems that's been identified as people being sent home and then coming back to the hospital when they are at a very severe level of illness.
If you are sent home the treatment usually consists of pain relievers such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen, cough syrup, rest, and drinking lots of fluids. If you are taking ibuprofen there are some illnesses that are exacerbated by ibuprofen and one of them is restless leg syndrome. Even if you are taking ibuprofen at the recommended dosage it could trigger some discomfort in your legs. For ibuprofen and acetaminophen look at the instructions on the many the manufacturers recommended dosage and do not go above that. Ibuprofen can be associated with kidney failure, damage to your kidneys. Large doses acetaminophen is toxic to your liver. When you look for cough syrup, try to avoid the one that has Dextromethorphan. This is a substance - use as a cough suppressant and let me spell it for you and so that you know exactly what to look for it's D as in David E as an excellent X. T. R.O.M. E. T. H as in high O. R. as in royal. P as in Paul. H. A as an apple. N as in Nancy. This cough suppressant has been identified as a potential problem for people who are dealing with COVID-19 and a article recently published in the journal Nature, the scientists found that dextromethorphan can increase the ability of the virus to replicate. There are other conditions where you shouldn't take cough suppressants or cough medicine or just cough syrup and so you want to talk with your doctor if you have any kind of chronic medical condition then you're being treated for. For example people with problems with it thyroid, people have glaucoma, hypertension, if you have some type of coronary artery disease, problems with gastric reflux, you want to talk with your doctor before you take these medicines. And also be aware that some cough medicine cannot be combined with alcohol.
Let's talk just briefly about reopening. There are going to be reopening of businesses, I think all of them are open for business and at some capacity in the Richmond and Metro Richmond area. In Virginia we are asked to wear a mask and I would strongly recommend that you do that because it will cut down the risk of you spreading a virus if you should become infected but if two people are wearing it, a mask; it decreases the risk even more. One of the biggest things that I've been asked about more frequently is going back to places of worship. If you are going to go back to a place of worship and worship in person, there are some guidelines and I will be making available those guidelines in a ebook which will be at www.drhamiltonstubbs.com and that's D. R. Hamilton-Stubbs dot-com. And right now what the recommendations are is you need to have three phases, in my opinion based on what I read from the CDC, you need a pre-planning, a phase of what will be allowed doing the worship, and what will be done after the worship. Your pre-planning phase would be to educate your members about the precautions and things that need to be in place when they come back into the church. For example, it is recommended that all people have on a mask, if families want to sit together or people who live in the same household, who want to sit together that is okay, but other people need to be spaced about six feet apart. There should be extra hand sanitizers or ways for people to wash their hands and the bathrooms should be cleaned very thoroughly before and after people are in there. One thing that we may not have thought of because it seems like it's just not related to the coronavirus is what's happening with your water system. The CDC does have a water management program that you can designate someone to go and look at this information, but one of the things that I've found is if you have an air conditioning system and your building has been unoccupied for a period of time and water is in that system it can grow the fires that causes Legionnaires' disease and Legionnaires' disease can be fatal. So you want to have your air conditioning checked for mold and viruses and bacteria that cause Legionnaires' disease specifically. With water fountains if they have been sitting without useful while the water fountain can grow mold and this should be tested too. During the church service people should have on their masks and singing is not recommend it because it spreads the virus in greater numbers and for farther distances. It's also not recommended that we have things that multiple people are going to use. For example your hymnal. Maybe you should just print out something or use a common song that everyone knows so people don't have to re-hand off the hymnal books. Other things that are used very frequently should be replaced with some alternative or disposable option if what you're using cannot be sanitized. At the end of the church service or your worship service your area should be thoroughly cleaned and there are lots of disinfectants listed on the EPA website that have been approved, but the simplest one and the one I think most people have access to is just bleach. Make sure your bleach is not expired. I like to use name-brand products and so I would use a name-brand one if you can afford it. The CDC has guidelines for the recommended dilution and it is 1/3 cup of bleach in a gallon of water and this should be used for cleaning down high-touch areas and the places where people sat and in the bathrooms. One other thing you can do that just came to mind is make sure you have good ventilation in the in the room. For example if your sanctuary has windows that open or doors that you can leave open this will allow air to circulate and it's thought that when you have air circulating the virus is less likely to accumulate and become a big problem.
This is all that I have for today. Joining me again next week at the same time Tuesday on Facebook live and I'll give you more updates that I'm finding as we travel this journey. Thank you for joining me and may God have mercy on us all.