COVID San Antonio
  • Drive Through Testing
  • COVID Facts
    • What if I'm Sick
    • Stop the Spread
    • Whats New?
  • Getting SA back to work
    • For Business Owners
    • ASCs/Hospitals
  • How can I help?
  • Blog
  • About Us- Our Mission
  • Contact Us
  • Drive Through Testing
  • COVID Facts
    • What if I'm Sick
    • Stop the Spread
    • Whats New?
  • Getting SA back to work
    • For Business Owners
    • ASCs/Hospitals
  • How can I help?
  • Blog
  • About Us- Our Mission
  • Contact Us

Managing Stress & Anxiety

5/17/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Even though some of our stores are opening and some residents getting back to work, lots of San Antonio residents are choosing to stay inside and out of harms way until…well, who knows when. Here are just a few ideas on what you can do to make sure that your anxiety does not get the best of you.
 
  • Warm weather is upon us and now is the perfect time to start planning out your garden or dive into a small garden if you have always wanted to give it a try. Click here for a helpful list on the easiest plants to start with.
  • Get active with your pets. Have you been having trouble with Rover not quite following commands? What a better time than now to help your family pet stay sharp, check out an easy way to get started here.
  • Dust off your San Antonio Public Library card. There are plenty of options available for you to look at on the digital library with ebooks, eaudio books, emagazines, and emovies.
  • Get cooking or baking. If you enjoy spending time in the kitchen, challenge yourself to try new recipes, work with new ingredients and step outside of your comfort zone. Be sure to enjoy yourself and the process.
 
Stress management is particularly important for all of us right now. We must take care of ourselves to be able to get through these tough times and that means keeping our stress level down. So, whatever it is you like to do to relax at home, do it. Stay safe San Antonio. 

0 Comments

San Antonio’s Under 40 Group Largest in Covid-19 Cases

5/11/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
With our stay-at-home ban recently being lifted, San Antonians that are younger (mostly in this age group) will be the ones returning to work and with this group being the largest carriers of Covid-19, what can we expect in the future if symptoms do not show for up to two weeks? Individuals that are in this age group are also the caretakers of our young and old population, so what does this mean for our most vulnerable?
 
As of May 10, 2020, the statistics say that nearly half of the city’s Covid-19 cases are seen in people that are 40 years old and under. This is an alarming reality because these are our community’s most mobile and active residents. How did we get here San Antonio? Are we already relaxing just a little too much? Now is not the time to slack on hand washing, mask wearing and social distancing. Even though our city is trying to get back to some sort of productive status, we should not view Covid-19 as a mere bad memory. Now is the time to really apply those anti-viral survival skills we have all been learning.
 
Did you know that most of the under 40-somethings that are infected had no underlying illnesses? It does not matter what area of town you live in, there have been cases seen from all over and we always need to stay actively aware  in every place we visit. With all of our city eager to leave our houses and go back to shopping, getting a haircut or a meal at a local restaurant, we must be mindful that with our newfound freedom comes exposure and risk.   
 
Our economy can use a boost from patrons and a visit to somewhere other than our mailbox will do a lot for our moral, but please be responsible when you are out of the house and continue to protect yourself and the community. Take it slow when integrating yourself back into the outside world, and remember San Antonio, keep your distance for your safety. 

0 Comments

Why Two Tests Are Important

5/4/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
In our battle with the coronavirus, detection of the virus is key.  Up to 30% of the time, the tests results can be incorrect (via swab). It is obvious that getting test results right is important because you can be spreading while you should be self-isolating, especially as some people do not show signs of any illness at all or until they are very ill. This is why Covid SA has two test available.
The swab test works like this…a long flexible cotton swab is guided into the mouth or nasopharynx area and a sample is taken from an in individual. This process is quite comfortable and very brief – takes only a matter of minutes to complete. After the sample is taken, it is sent out to a lab to be tested.
The second way an individual can be tested for Covid-19 is by taking a simple blood sample then sending it away to the lab for testing for antibodies that may be present in the blood. Most patients have detectable antibodies by day 14 after symptoms have started to occur and become more easily able to detect as time goes on.
“When using a single test, the possibility of the test being negative (false negative) is relatively high.  Returning an infected person to your workforce could have huge implications for work missed and for those that are self-insured, medical costs. By utilizing two tests, the probability of having an ill employee returning to work is minimized.” – Dr. Megan Williams
As our city slowly gets back to its previous routine, we need to stay as safe as possible to keep moving forward and not lose all the progress we have made together. If you have employees that will be returning to work or if you feel like you need to be tested for Covid-19, please start the process today. 

0 Comments

Covid-19 and Your Body

4/27/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Covid-19 has been in the news for quite some time now and just in case you were interested in knowing a bit more on how it interacts with your body here is a little of what we have learned so far.

First symptoms that appear could be any combination of fever, fatigue, dry cough, and shortness of breath. Symptoms will vary with each person; there is more information on symptoms that medical professionals are seeing as a pattern that may be established as regular symptoms in the future.Transmission of the virus is easy and is spread through respiratory droplets produced by the cough, sneeze or breath of an infected person.

Though a person may not feel ill during the initial two weeks of infection, the virus is hard at work in the lungs. The job of the virus cells is to make the healthy cells of our body regenerate more virus cells. Why is it so important to be cautious during this time of social distancing? The transmission of the virus is still possible from person to person even if the infected individual does not seem sick.

After symptoms have set in, they may feel flu-like and mild at first. Over the days that pass, symptoms will continue to worsen; the primary place that will be affected will be your throat, beyond this point it will work its way down into the respiratory airways causing inflammation and a persistent cough.

This virus has the potential to cause an individual to develop pneumonia. If the virus makes its way down into the lower respiratory tract before a person has sought medical assistance, there will be complications in the functions in the passing of oxygen to the blood, a vital function for all parts of our body. After pneumonia has set in, the individuals age, underlying medical conditions and the severity of the virus will play a role in recovery.

The main thing our dedicated medical professionals can do for a sick individual that has been hospitalized is provide supportive care. So, the best thing we can be doing is protecting ourselves right now, staying safe and keep the social distancing practices we have been observing. Stay safe San Antonio, keep about your health in mind as we get through this together. 

0 Comments

Tips on Working from Home

4/19/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Are you still working from home? Some were happy in the beginning but found it to be a bit of a challenge. Your surroundings are obviously different and that can prove to be hard to stay focused and be productive. Here are some tips on what you can do to help keep up with your work.
 
  • Make sure to create a space that you dedicate for work, such as a desk, corner of your living room or guest room for the time being. It will be easier for you to associate the time you are spending in that space with your work tasks if you have a dedicated space for work.
  • Have set “hours” that you work. If your job doesn’t preset these for you and gives you the choice to set them, do yourself a favor and keep a schedule that you can follow. You will already be used to following a schedule at work, just make an extension of that.
  • Take advantage of your surroundings while you can. Since you are at home, make some awesome food and watch a show on your lunch. Chances are, you probably don’t get to do that all the time, so do it while you can.
  • Don’t forget to take breaks! Since you are at home, you may find that you don’t get up from your new office space (couch) and forget to get up and move your muscles. Set a timer to remind yourself to get up and take a walk around the house or walk the dog for the 3rd time today and get your blood pumping.
  • Stay positive. Even to the most optimistic of the introverts who have been enjoying all the inside and work-from-home time, there still may still be overwhelming feelings of being cooped up. Reach out to friends and family members by phone, video chat, stay in touch with each with other to keep from feeling isolated.
 
Enjoy the sunshine from the safety of your yard and know that we are in this together and this will not last forever. Stay safe, stay healthy. 

0 Comments

April 12th, 2020

4/12/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture

​San Antonio Flattening the Curve
 
Our community is very anxious to get back to our regular lives and is growing a bit tired of being quarantined, and it may be statistically reasonable that most people will contract the coronavirus (most not seriously ill), flatting the curve might involve just getting back to normal. There are a few things we must consider when we jump back into “being normal”.
 

There might be a misconception that if most of the people that reside in San Antonio were to contract the coronavirus that herd immunity would start to take effect and therefore, slow the spread of the virus any further and that would resolve our issues. There are two ways of building immunity to a virus: naturally contracting and successfully fighting it off, and through a vaccine.
 
At the rate that new cases have been shown to spread, allowing people to contract the virus naturally and let their body build an immunity to it would be too risky for numerous reasons. In order to build immunity in this way, one would have to contract the virus, unlike a vaccine. This would put a considerable strain on the health care system here in San Antonio. Would we have enough doctors, nurses, and medical equipment to go around? For how long?
 
While herd immunity has been shown to be very beneficial in several circumstances, there are safe ways of going about building immunity (vaccines). There are still ongoing studies of developing a vaccine for the virus that causes Covid-19, but nothing has been finalized just yet. If there were to be a vaccine that were to come out in the future, healthy individuals of our community would receive it in order to provide protection to our residents that are too ill to receive the vaccine. This would be our “herd immunity” for our residents in San Antonio.
 
So, before we all rush back to our “normal” lives again, please consider the facts:
Before you can build immunity, you must contract the virus There is no vaccine for the virus that causes Covid-19 yet We must consider that we don’t know how each of us will react to the virus if we contract it The infection rate is very rapid and would strain our health care system possibly beyond what it could stand It is still unknown if someone can contract the virus more than once  
Be safe and think about what your current decisions will impact later San Antonio. We are all in this together. 

0 Comments

Q&A Session with Dr. Butt & Dr. Williams

4/3/2020

1 Comment

 
1 Comment

March 23rd, 2020

3/23/2020

0 Comments

 

I am young and healthy. Do I really need to worry about the coronavirus?

Community question:
I’m about to turn 30 and there is a lot of rhetoric out there that we should not worry about contracting this as we are more likely to recover —but what are the effects really?

A: This has been a major issue in controlling the spread of coronavirus. At this moment there are people who are enjoying spring break, confident that it will not affect them.

A couple of facts-- the death rate for people <30 years old is less than 1%. In contrast up to 20% of patients greater than 80 years old will die from COVID19. Their symptoms are also more likely to be mild in nature. So it is a fact that young are less impacted. But please consider;

-if someone less than 30 years old gets the coronavirus, they (like everyone else) are guaranteed to have less access to the health care system. This could translate into an inability to be seen at their primary care physician's office or ER.

-The end result is that a simple upper respiratory infection or pneumonia won't get the attention it would get in a normal, unstressed system which could translate into a worse illness/more complications. But the most serious implication is this;
-Think of that person greater than 60 years old that you love. Your Nana in Atlanta, your Tio in Texas, that nice neighbor that you enjoy chatting with... all of these people are at increased risk of dying. And you can help protect them, just by staying home. It seems a small price to pay for someone you live!
0 Comments

Sick with fever... should I use tylenol or motrin?

3/20/2020

0 Comments

 
The World Health Organization recommended Tuesday that people suffering COVID-19 symptoms avoid taking ibuprofen, after French officials warned that anti-inflammatory drugs could worsen effects of the virus. Although they later reversed this recommendation yesterday, please consider using acetaminophen* (tylenol) instead of antinflammatories like Motrin, Naproxen or Aspirin.  *this does not constitue medical advice
​

0 Comments

COVID Panic—Where is all the toilet paper? Hoarding in San Antonio

3/20/2020

1 Comment

 
Picture
COVID Panic—Where is all the toilet paper?
Hoarding in San Antonio

Been to the store lately? Hopefully not.
That was a trick question – stay home
folks! So, let’s talk toilet tissue. Why on
earth is everyone panic- buying toilet
paper?
As creatures that feel the need to be
prepared and take care of ourselves
through tough times, when we often
will rush out and stock up on things
such as bottled water and canned and
dry goods when we get information on an approaching storm or possible season
of unfavorable weather.
So, why not add this to our prize panic possessions? Our fearful nature that is so
deeply rooted in us that it can cause us to evaluate and choose what other items
we deem worthy of stock piling. Since we all share this same essential bodily
function, it may seem only natural to want to grab up all the two ply you lay your
eyes on. Try your best not to do that.
Even though, as you have probably seen on the local news, there is no shortage of
delivery trucks coming in to drop off supplies to our grocery stores. No shortage
of the incoming toilet paper, so if everyone would just stop over buying and
creating the problem, we all would be okay.
Just remember that we have to share our community with others and that when
you panic-buy and over purchase, you may be taking much needed items from
someone in dire need like an elderly person or someone with children. So, fear
not San Antonio, more toilet paper is on the way, buy what you need and think
about the rest of our community in need.
Stay well and stay home.

1 Comment
<<Previous

    Author

    COVID SA is an organization created by community based FM/EM and urology physicians with the goal of educating and mobilizing response to COVID19 

    Archives

    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

**The content on all websites associated with  COVIDSA, including, but not limited to, the text, graphics, images, links, and other materials are for informational purposes only.  The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, and does not constitute medical or other professional advice.  COVIDSA does not recommend or endorse any specific tests, physicians, products, procedures, opinions, or other information that may be mentioned on the website.  Reliance on any information provided herein is solely at your own risk.  The information provided on all  social media associated with COVIDSA, including facebook and instagram is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between patient/site visitor and his/her physician.  Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read or seen on COVIDSA websites.

Home

Covid Facts

Stop the Spread

What if I'm Sick

Blog

Screening SA