How are you feeling right now? These concurrent disasters can really take a toll on body and mind. Being cut off from safe outdoor spaces for recreation and socialization is making the world feel pretty small. So, it’s important to reach out to your community — and that includes Baskin Clinic! Ask for what you need, and offer what you are able. The act of sharing burdens provides purpose and comfort for all those connected lives.
An Update
Just before the wildfires hit, Labor Day weekend family and social gatherings provided ample, fresh opportunities for viral transmission. Many people are now displaced from their homes, and smoke has made limited ventilation a necessity — no more open windows for now. All the while, private labs are the only ones operating this week, as poor air quality has temporarily closed the state public health lab (not to mention city parks, national and state forests, and outdoor dining areas). In short, COVID data might be a bit hazy for a while.
But there is good news! The Portland Metro area has been on a positive trajectory for the last month. The proportion of test results that come back positive remains around 3 percent in our area. Local contact tracers are successfully following up with about 96% of new cases within 24 hours of a positive test. And new cases that cannot be contact-traced to other known cases have dropped to 38 percent, though this remains above state health goals.
Let’s sustain these positive trends by reinforcing what seems to be working so well.
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Wear masks in public.
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Maintain physical distance.
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Avoid indoor gatherings with members of multiple households.
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Wash hands.
Some of this guidance may be more difficult to follow in the cooler, darker, wetter months of autumn, but they are of utmost importance. People are more than twice as likely to get COVID from their friend or family member as they are from a stranger.
Don’t let your guard (mask) down
The riskiest settings are indoor spaces where members of multiple households are gathered without masks. A study from the CDC showed that people who ate on-site at a restaurant were twice as likely to get COVID as those who did not. By contrast, gyms and hair salons with precautions in place have not been linked to major outbreaks. In Maine on August 7th, 65 people gathered without masks for an indoor wedding. Those infected at the event have gone on to start outbreaks at two additional locations, totaling at least 175 COVID infections. Seven people have died, none of whom attended the wedding. Whether it’s a choir practice, a business meeting, a wedding, or an indoor restaurant, these unmasked events play out like a diabolical game of 6-degrees of Kevin Bacon. We know it can be awkward to be strict about the rules in our personal lives, but if we all do it, we’ll all be better off.
Testing
We get a lot of questions on the subject, so it never hurts to reiterate the guidelines for testing.
For those with COVID-19 symptoms:
1) SARS-CoV-2 PCR test now.
2) Isolate for 10 days regardless of test result.
3) Consider re-test in 2-3 days, if we have a high clinical suspicion but negative test, as the false negative rate is at least 30 percent.
For those who have had a significant exposure (Unmasked contact <6ft, for >15 min):
1) Quarantine 14 days regardless of testing.
2) SARS-CoV-2 PCR test about 5-6 days after exposure.
That’s it. The most important thing is to follow the quarantine and isolation procedures. There is no such thing as a perfect test, so it really should not be used to get around best practices.
As you know, we like to reward you for reading these with something fun at the end. This one came to us from a patient, and it tickled us too much to keep to ourselves:
And here’s one for those of you who are working remotely. Maybe consider this alternative to the standard desk?
Credit to Annabel Baskin for finding this gem!
Stay well,
Baskin Clinic