COVID-19 Update: A Letter to our Patients
Dear Patient,
We want to provide important information about COVID-19, what you can do to stay safe and what we are doing during these unprecedented times. New information is coming out daily and sometimes hourly. We have done our best to find the most current information as of 3/19/2020 and summarize it in this letter.
Why is COVID-19 dangerous?
A person infected with the virus (SARS-CoV-2) may not experience symptoms until 2-14 days after exposure.
During this period during which no symptoms are present, people can still transmit the virus.
Younger people generally have minor symptoms and continue to transmit the virus. In fact, they may never know that they have COVID-19 (information in the last couple of days suggest that younger people are also more likely to be hospitalized)
This is NOT the regular flu. From what we know today, it is much more likely to be fatal. It is even more fatal in older people and people with multiple medical problems (e.g. heart disease, lung disease, diabetes) where death rate can approach 20%.
Since this is a new virus, our bodies do not have immunity against it (and we cannot build immunity by taking supplements). There is no vaccine or medicine available to prevent or treat COVID-19
Recent estimates project that each infected person will transmit the virus to approximately 2 other people. This results in a doubling time of approximately 6 days This rapid increase in cases is referred to as exponential growth.
This means that if 50,000 people have the virus today, then in 6 days 100,000 people will have it. In another 12 days it will be 400,000 and less than two weeks later it will be over a million people. We have 330 million people in the US.
Given the fact that people without symptoms can transmit the virus for a long period of time, the number of infected people doubles every 6 days, and since we have no immunity against it leading to a high fatality rate is what makes this virus so dangerous
How is it transmitted and how do we stay safe?
As far as we know, this virus (SARS-CoV-2) is predominantly transmitted by droplets which we release in the air when speaking, sneezing and coughing.
These droplet particles travel 3-6 feet, which is why we recommend maintaining a distance of 6 feet between other people.
The virus can survive on surfaces upto 72 hours (e.g. after someone coughs without covering their mouth) and can potentially be transmitted by touching the infected surface and then touching your face
This is why we recommend not touching your face often and clean all “high touch” (e.g. countertops, doorknobs, toilets, phones, keyboards) every day
While regular facemasks may not prevent you from contracting the virus, they will catch the droplets when you cough or sneeze. This decreases the chance that others may get infected. If you have a mask, you can use it when you are out in public or at home if you live with someone who is immunocompromised. (Update 04/07/2020: New Recommendations are that everyone should wear a mask when in public).
We encourage you to stay safe by practicing the following:
Wash hands frequently for at least 20 seconds (regular soap kills the virus) and try not to touch your face especially mouth, nose and eyes.
Cough & sneeze into your sleeve and not your hand. Catching a cough or a sneeze with your hand will transmit the virus to your hand, and consequently to everything you touch with that hand.
Stay at home as much as possible and only go out when absolutely necessary.
Only interact face to face with the same people and keep that to a minimum (e.g family in the same house). Don’t invite neighbors or friends to dinner or coffee (use a video chat application like FaceTime or Skype instead if you need to see someone else). Avoid playdates for kids if possible.
For people with chronic conditions, please keep taking all your regular medications. Please talk to your insurance company if you can get early refills so that you don’t run out of meds or have to make an emergency visit to the pharmacy.
If you contract COVID-19, please self-quarantine for at least 14 days even if you start feeling better.
What is Avanta Clinic doing?
At Avanta Clinic, we have 2 goals:
To care for you without putting you at risk for COVID-19.
To decrease our staff’s risk for contracting COVID-19 so that we can continue to care for you.
To meet these goals, we are implementing the following:
We are requesting all patients with cough, fever, difficulty breathing and/or contact with a person with COVID-19 to call us instead of scheduling an appointment.
We will consult with you over the phone or schedule a Telehealth video visit to assess your symptoms and provide treatment recommendations (including testing for COVID-19 if needed).
We will try to contact all our high-risk patients with an upcoming appointment to determine if they need to come to the office or if we can assess them via a Telehealth video visit.
If we get sick with COVID-19, we will have to go in quarantine for 14 days. This will impact our ability to take care of you.
A word about Telehealth
At present we are using HIPAA Compliant Google Hangouts Meet application for video visits. You can find more information on our previous Blog entry: Offering Telehealth during Coronavirus Outbreak.
If we find ourselves performing a lot of video visits, we may switch to a dedicated Telehealth software application to make it easier to conduct video visits
Please note that copay and/or deductible will still apply for Telehealth visits.
As of today (03/19/2020) Medicare and Medicaid are covering Telehealth. We are working with private payors to determine coverage. We encourage you to call your insurance company to find out if they will cover Telehealth with your PCP for both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 health conditions
We will continue to update the Avanta Clinic Blog with new information as it becomes available and as well as with how we are responding with this new information.
“Everything we do before a pandemic will seem alarmist. Everything we do after will seem inadequate”
Michael Leavitt, Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services
Stay Safe
Your Avanta Clinic Team
Here are some other sources of information that we have found useful:
COVID-19 Update; 3/14/2020. A Message From Concerned Physicians - a very will written letter by physicians going into a lot more detail about COVID-19
Washington Post: Why outbreaks like coronavirus spread exponentially, and how to “flatten the curve”
YouTube: Exponential growth and epidemics - a little math heavy in the beginning but does a great job of explaining the concept
YouTube: Five Things To Know About Properly Washing Your Hands
CDC COVID-19 Page - One of the best go-to resource for up to date accurate information