“I think the main thing to know is that while it’s not as bad as it has been, it’s still not great.”
Dr. Gwendolyn Unzicker is the Medical Director of the Ottawa County Department of Public Health where COVID cases are following the national trend, edging up and expected to rise heading into the start of school.
The way COVID levels are tracked has changed; it’s now monitored through wastewater detection.
“We have three specific testing sites we monitor closely and all three of those sites are actually seeing an increase over the last week.”
As experts debate over several possible reasons for the increasing rates nationwide, Unzicker says its important people realize it’s still a serious health concern.
“Some reports I recently heard there were still 5000 people hospitalized nationwide over the past week or so as well as a thousand that have died over the last week in this country from COVID 19.”
She recommends following the basics of disease prevention such as washing hands, staying home when sick, masking while in crowded areas, and keeping up to date on vaccines.
“We’re hearing sometime in the next week or two hopefully is when we’ll start seeing those updated vaccines become available.”
The latest version was approved by the FDA for shipping last week.
