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By Teena Monteleone

What to do if you feel sick

“Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands”: Regional MHO

Mar 26, 2020 | 3:00 PM

In light of the uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, local doctors are providing some tips to the public on what to do if you’re feeling sick.

Regional medical association president Dr. Stan Oleksinski said patients should call their family physicians first.

“The reason why is they can answer most things over the phone and help you navigate the system during these troubling times,” he said. “We don’t want you to come to the office for blood pressure checks or prescription refills at this time. We can also answer questions about COVID-19 over the phone…we can assist and set up referrals to go to testing centres.”

Now that community transmission of the virus is happening, Oleksinski said its more important than ever to maintain social distancing and self-isolate. Patients are being encouraged to call clinics to set up appointments rather than just walking in.

“If somebody is infected and they don’t know it, we don’t want them coming and infecting other people,” he said.

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Clinics are taking extra precautions within their waiting rooms. If a patient displaying symptoms of the coronavirus arrives for an appointment, they’ll be put into an examination room immediately. If there are no rooms available, patients will be asked to wait in their vehicles until a room opens.

“We’re trying to prevent people from being close together cause that’s how it spreads – being close together and then people touching their face and their mouth.”

Even if you’re displaying symptoms of COVID-19 like a fever, dry cough, shortness of breath or loss of sense of smell or taste, Oleksinski said to call your family physician first. If you’re not feeling well in general or if your symptoms are mild, he said patients should self-isolate.

“The bad part of the virus is that as soon as someone gets it, they’re contagious immediately. So even if you don’t have symptoms, you can spread it,” Oleksinski said. “This is a dangerous virus. Most people aren’t going to die and most will have minor illness, but for a few people, I mean they are predicting 3 to 5 per cent [will die]. Although it’s guesswork at this time, that’s still a significant number of people.”

Oleksinski likened the current pandemic to the Spanish flu in 1918, noting it killed over 5,000 people in Saskatchewan and 20-million worldwide.

“If you look at pandemics over the century and millennium, the Spanish Flu went from 1918 to 1920. I’m expecting this to last two years,” he said.

“Will it be this bad the whole time? I sure hope not but the next 12 weeks or so will give us a good idea of where we’re going.”

Regional preparations

The medical health officer representing the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) in Prince Albert said preparations are underway to ensure Emergency Operation Centres (EOCs) are functional and contingency plans are in place for future phases of the pandemic.

Dr. Khami Chokani said at this point the planning process is about selecting which sites may be used in the event that patient demand exceeds capacity at the Victoria Hospital. Earlier this week the government said the SHA had already initiated a slowdown of non-essential services to increase bed availability, preserve supplies and support a labour pool for reallocation. Work is also being done to establish a lab in Prince Albert that would be able to confirm COVID-19 cases locally; however, there was no timeline on when that lab may be operational.

Chokani said the plans will ensure we are prepared, but the public still needs to do their part to address the challenge.

“For those who are worried and panicking, do your part. Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands,” he said. “And social distancing, I cannot overemphasize how important that is.”

“For those who are brushing it [the pandemic] off, I don’t know how they would feel when they become a statistic. That’s all I can say.”

—

teena.monteleone@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @TeenaMonteleone