Letter From Village Health Official

March 19, 2020

To the good people of Warwick,

We all find ourselves struggling with how to conduct our lives in the present environment.  We each have our individual issues to deal with whether it involve work, family, financial, and of course health.  I have discussed the medical issues with Mayor Newhard, and he has been working with other officials to educate and guide our community and to enforce the necessary difficult restrictions on our lives and businesses.

As the Warwick Village Health Official, I would like to assure you all that the medical community is doing all they can to keep you as safe and healthy as possible.  PLEASE try your very best to follow all the rules that the medical experts have recommended.  We all already know what these are.  I would simply state: Try your best not to touch anything that isn’t yours, and if you must, wash your hands as soon as possible.

As we know there is community spread of disease at this point, it doesn’t really matter if you had traveled to one of the mentioned countries of interest.  Most, but not all, patients seem to have a combination of these symptoms: Fever, muscle aches, fatigue, shortness of breath, and dry cough.  Other ‘cold and flu’ symptoms like sore throat, nasal congestion, and headache may be seen but less commonly.  If you have any of these, you should not be around anyone else until your symptoms are gone in order to protect others.  If you have been in close contact with anyone who has tested positive, then you should not be around others for 14 days.  Close contact may be defined as 15 minutes of close face to face time, or 2 or more hours of contact in a contained environment.  If you are in close contact with someone who has symptoms but hasn’t been tested, then you should follow extra careful precautions (don’t touch anything that isn’t yours, separation) as everyone should be doing anyway, but probably don’t need to self-quarantine in your home.  Symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure, and you may be contagious to others during that time.

As far as testing goes, we are finally getting more ability to test at least people with significant symptoms when necessary.  Testing is unfortunately still limited and requires a provider’s prescription.  We ask that you do not present to a testing location unannounced, and do not present to the ER unless of course you have chest pain or shortness of breath (if so, please call ahead so they can be prepared).  Remember in the majority of cases you will be asked to go home and isolate and rest, drink fluids, eat well, and avoid alcohol and cigarettes whether you are positive or not, so testing positive or negative is not going to influence your individual treatment plan.  And you should be doing all the right things mentioned above with any symptoms of cold and flu anyway.  Of course, we all want to know what we have, and testing will surely help with knowing how many of us actually carry the virus or are ill with it.  If you do get sick, call your primary doctor’s office for advice.  Depending on your specific circumstances you may be referred to a testing site.  More of these will be available in the coming days.  St. Anthony’s testing is almost up and running and the large companies like Quest and Bioreference and LabCorp are starting as well.  Things are changing daily for us in the medical world so please be patient as we learn what we are to inform our patients.

In good health,

Anthony Martini MD