COVID-19 in Wisconsin Update

This afternoon I attended an online presentation by Dr. John Raymond of the Medical College of Wisconsin. I thought you might be interested in what the experts are saying about the recent virus surge. Here are my notes and a link to Dr. Raymond's slides.

Notes from Medical College of Wisconsin Webinar 10/2/2020 (Dr. John Raymond)

(access presentation slides here )

• The Wisconsin surge in COVID-19 spread will last 2 full months. Expect the surge to move south into Milwaukee County next week. Positive tests are currently 17% and 6% of those are being hospitalized. 

• COVID-19 and the common flu are both respiratory illnesses but COVID-19 differs from common flu strains in a couple of ways. Common flu stays in your respiratory system. COVID-19 enters the respiratory tract, then attacks your blood vessels and clots your blood, which can cause long lasting symptoms long after the virus is overcome. 

• This is a respiratory pathogen. There is low risk of surface transmission of COVID-19. In other words, touching common surfaces is an issue only if you then move your hands to your face where it can enter your respiratory system. That’s another good reason to wear a mask- your hands don’t absentmindedly touch your mouth and nose.

• When you get a COVID-19  test, your results capture the status of the virus in your system on that day. If you don’t have symptoms or your symptoms are mild and and you test negative, then develop symptoms a few days later, it could be that you didn’t have enough virus in your system the day you were tested, but the virus has now replicated to the point where another test will be positive.

• It takes 5-7 days after exposure to the disease to exhibit symptoms and you are most contagious 2 days before you begin feeling symptoms. So if you know you’ve been exposed and no one was wearing a mask, you need to quarantine even if you don’t have symptoms. If you feel worse before your test results come back, and your test comes back negative you should be retested.

• Youth ages 10-19 are twice as likely to spread the disease as any other age group.