Does it feel like you’re living in a 4th graders story? — Spring time came and the world was warming up. There was a virus, it got people real sick. Stores ran out of toilet paper. Then the world shut down. And then it was Friday the 13th and it snowed.
On a more serious note, thank you for taking the time to review this blog post about the emerging novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) and COVID-19 (coronavirus disease- 2019), and how to deal with it.
Here’s what we know about the spread of the coronavirus, from the CDC (link):
- There’s no vaccine. Prevention is the best way to not get sick.
- It spreads by person. You must either be within 6 feet of a cough/sneeze, or touch a surface that still has the active virus on it, then it has to get into your eyes, nose or mouth, then into the lungs.
- The novel coronavirus is very easy to kill. Soap and water is the best defense, next is hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol content.
- The virus can last up to 2-3 days on a hard surface, but lasts only minutes in direct sunlight (UV rays). If you eat it, it won’t infect you.
- The virus is more contagious than the flu, but less than the measles, zika, or HIV.
- Social distancing and quarantining is essential. This means you should stay 6 feet away from other people, if possible. Only wear a mask if you are infected, or are healthy and caring for an infected person.
- A person will stay contagious for approximately 2 weeks, with 80% experiencing only a mild flu-like sickness.
- It is a concern because of the high chance of pneumonia in older or immune-compromised individuals. It is easily treatable, if there is medical help available. The potential high death toll will be due to the lack of available medical help, if there is a sudden surge of severe cases.
The CDC, OSHA, WISHA and the ADA guidelines, before 2019, and generally speaking, guidelines for dental offices are to treat each patient as if they already have a contagious disease. This includes cleaning dirty surfaces, and sterilizing all instruments after use, washing hands thoroughly, and wearing personal protective equipment appropriate for the task at hand.
We are happy to inform you that we have followed all of these guidelines for many years now, and as such, we have been in compliance with these standards in order to protect all of our team as well as patients even since even before the current Corona virus pandemic.
We encourage you to let us know if you have a fever, cough or possible exposure and we can reschedule for a future date. However, in the event a patient by chance may happen to be a carrier but not have any symptoms yet, we are still continuing to protect, disinfect and sterilize our environment and working surfaces so that all future patients continue to be safe.
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