WAAY 31 is once again joined by Dr. Ali Hassoun who gives his insight into coronavirus issues of late like the increasing number of cases nationally, and issues schools are encountering with virtual learning.
Coronavirus impact on north alabama as a whole.
>> dan shaffer: and to do that, we welcome again dr. ali hassoun , infectious disease specialist at huntsville hospital.
Thanks again for joining us.
>> dr. hassoun: thank you for having me.
>> dan shaffer: we're learning about new positive cases among students all the time, include ago new one in fayetteville high school just within the last hour so with the winter months coming it could get worse, we're concerned or how concerned are you about the spread of coronavirus with students back in the classroom and playing sports?
>> dr. hassoun: so i can tell you for sure we're going to see increasing cases.
We already have seen with the change in weather actually increasing cases.
And it's expected as the weather get colder, people are going to stay mosh indoors.
So there are more chances of transmission.
And with that we're probably going to see definitely between schools, other work places, more cases there.
So it is concerning.
I'm hoping we're going to push more toward the prevention and follow the guideline as much as we can so we can reduce as much cases as we can.
>> najahe sherman: as we just mentioned with rogers school a big issue that schools are facing are the number of teachers and staff members in quarantine.
Schools are switching to virtual learning for several weeks at a time to let the virus run its course.
And then returning to the classroom.
So is that enough to actually get the virus under control in a school?
>> dr. hassoun: yeah, i can tell you i know they've been trying where they close it for a few weeks.
My opinion concerning that, it's really very hard to control it in a week or two.
Yes, you might be able to cut down on it, but it will be extremely difficult.
I think you're going to need to be four weeks at least to make sure the transmission, tracing and tracking others, make sure other cases won't show up.
So two weeks is not going to be good enough because imagine ex potionure happened, it takes about a week or ten days for another case to happen.
So it's going to take time.
So two weeks is usually not enough.
>> dan shaffer: so what kind of a disservice is this to kids?
I mean, what are the health ramifications of switching back and forth between in class and virtual schedules?
And not necessarily just for the kids, these poor parents, the stress levels must be off the charts and this can't be good for anybody.
>> dr. hassoun: absolutely.
It's very, very challenging.
And that's why we said from the beginning, we need to really have a plan of how we manage this.
P we need to get to a low level of transmission, as much as we can.
So we can comfortably open it up and then reverse as things go.
By going back and forth, it's really, really challenging and stressful for everyone.
Whether the kids education, the parents, how how to deal with it , what to arrange, can they be off work.
It's very, very difficult.
I really think, specially as the cases are going to go up more, we're going to need to rethink this and going virtual until the end of december rather than keep back and forth with this.
So the parent at least and the kids know what's going to happen in the next eight weeks rather than keep back and forth.
>> najahe sherman: dr. hassoun, states across the country are seeing a surge in coronavirus cases.
Many health experts are concerned about a second wave.
One even said that we could see a rapid acceleration of cases starting as early as next week.
So how concerned are you as we see an uptick in cases across the u.s.?
>> dr. hassoun: so i can tell you, najahe, my main issue with this, we never really seen the first wavy go away completely.
We've seen improvement, definitely, but we never see it completely go down to a baseline of only ten cases or five cases.
So the first wave is still on going.
It's the uptick in it and the increase in it that's now coming up as we see it in the hospital as well as we see it in the community.
It is, again, the community going to be able to help us if they follow the guidelines so we can limit the transmission.
We can limit the numbers.
And that really going to be helpful rather than we'll see significant increase.
And it will be very, very difficult to manage, for everyone, community, health care facility, for everyone.
>> dan shaffer: certainly don't want to see any more hospitalizations.
Tonight we know there are 135 coronavirus inpatients across your huntsville hospital system.
36 of those are at decatur morgan hospital and that's one of the highest totals that facility has ever seen.
And it's -- we learned sex panning.
Their intensive care unit and coronavirus facilities.
How else do hospitals respond when they see a rapid spike like this?
>> dr. hassoun: so and you know we've faced it initially and we've had planning in the beginning in march and april for changing, for example, adjusting , to that increase by getting different floors to be a covid units floors.
, c-us get to be changed where we reserve it only for covid patients?
We make sure going to be enough ventilate tomplets make sure enough p.p.e.s.
So there's been already plan ahead of making sure if we see increase, we're going to be able to absorb it.
Now, how much we can keep on with that, that's the question because it disepped on how many cases are going to happen.
And it's not only these things.
It's the staff.
You know, between nurses, environmental services, secretaries, everybody will get infected if they get sick so there's going to be shortage.
So we're hoping everybody work together to be able to cut down on the cases as much as we can.
>> najahe sherman: huntsville hospital ceo david spiller said 80 hospital employees are home from work due to the virus russ.
He said it is affecting the ability of the hospital to treat patients.
At what point does this put a very serious strain on our hospitals?
>> dr. hassoun: yeah, if this -- this will where we're going to see more increase, definitely it's going to put significant strain and challenge because, you know, these covid unit, we had nurses who is trained in managing covid patients, we have nurses now who have experience.
The same goes for every level of staff.
You know, dietary services, environmental services, secretaries.
So if we get shortage in that, it's going to affect how much care a happens to these patient, how we manage these patients.
And as you'll see more infection , it's going to affect also families of these heath health care staff.
It's all like a domino effect.
So it really can put a strain and challenge if we see significant increase.
>> dan shaffer: we have a lot more to discuss with dr. hassoun including a search for a vaccine for coronavirus and newly
WAAY 31 is once again joined by Dr. Ali Hassoun who gives his insight into coronavirus issues of late like results experts are..
