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The state’s top epidemiologist says Nebraska has done a pretty good job so far of containing the spread of coronavirus and COVID-19, but the most critical weeks are still ahead. NET’s Jack Williams spoke with Nebraska State Epidemiologist Dr. Tom Safranek to find out how the war against coronavirus is going.
Latest news & resources: netNebraska.org/coronavirus
NET News: Dr. Safranek we're a few weeks into this here in Nebraska. How do you think the state has done so far in slowing the spread of coronavirus and COVID-19?
Dr. Tom Safranek: I think we got a pretty good job. It's not perfect. We're very concerned about it. We haven't seen the end of it. We're anticipating challenges going forward over the next few weeks. We have plans in place that we think can mitigate it or reduce the risk and we're urging everyone to pay close attention to the, to the state guidance and the directed health measures that have come out by State and local health departments.
NET News: We've had different projections for when we'll see the peak of COVID-19 cases in Nebraska anywhere from mid-April to the end of April and into May. What's your take on that?
Dr. Tom Safranek: I think we're all concerned about the coming four weeks. This is going to be an extremely critical period. It's very challenging to pinpoint like particular day or time period a lot of that is dependent on the extent of compliance with the directed health measures and the social distancing that we've been promoting.
NET News: It seems like every day we're getting new insight into how coronavirus has spread and how long it can last on a surface. Are we any closer to understanding that or is it kind of a moving target at this point?
Dr. Tom Safranek: We can find presence of the nucleic acid the RNA from this virus and whether that's infectious or not is the big question. So we have really really sensitive laboratory tests that can identify the presence of the nucleic acid RNA from the virus. And so our big question is whether or not that's infectious and how long it takes the infectiousness to decay and die off so it's no longer so.
NET News: Doctor Safranek, what about airborne versus not airborne, anymore insight on that? Is it just the bigger droplets or is it more than that?
Dr. Tom Safranek: That is an area of active interest but there's not definitive answers. To me, the most important answer is individuals have to recognize the guidance to stay away from other individuals, to practice social distancing. We think if you stay ten feet away from an individual, you're in good shape. Six feet is the minimum. We really strongly recommend avoiding crowds, certainly no more than 10, the fewer the better, and the more isolation the better. We feel like there's a lot individuals can do to avoid this they can control whether or not they're going to come down with this by practicing the social distancing.
NET News: Along those lines, many states have shelter-in-place orders right now, but Nebraska doesn't. Is that the right call in your opinion here or should we be doing what other areas are doing and locking things down?
Dr. Tom Safranek: We're very conscious of the benefits of social distancing and home, home isolation staying at home as much as possible. I know our leadership is considering and watching very closely what happens in other states. I'm sure that's under consideration. We know that by staying at home you tremendously reduce your risk of acquiring this so we urge everyone to be aware of that and to consider as much home isolation and social distancing as possible.
NET News: Are you concerned at all that many people with coronavirus are asymptomatic and that could be leading to an easier spread of the virus by people who don't know they have it or aren't feeling any symptoms?
Dr. Tom Safranek: There's a lot of things that make it really hard for us to control the spread of this virus and that's one of them. The fact that you may be asymptomatic throughout your entire period of infection and especially that you may be asymptomatic for a number of days before you actually develop symptoms and that you may be capable of transmitting it during that period when you're asymptomatic. And it's forced us to resort to the social distancing protocol for all individuals. Certainly if you're sick and you have symptoms, you really need to self-isolate whether you have a lab test or not.
NET News: We've had questions about why testing is so important, when someone who has symptoms, they're supposed to be quarantining anyway, so why does it matter? Why is testing still a big part of the solution here?
Dr. Tom Safranek: We love testing, it adds credence to the diagnosis. It tells people that they definitely need to be self isolating. It also allows individuals to realize we may they may not be infected and they can say for instance return to work as a health care worker or in other critical roles that we need to keep our society functioning. So we're really big on increasing testing and we think it's going to get bigger and bigger by the day and by the week.
NET News: We're starting to see more people comfortable with going to the store, mingling at the park, or along the hiking trails. Is there a danger here that people think we've moved past the critical stage, even when that's not really the case?
Dr. Tom Safranek: Anybody who thinks that is diluted and we really have to discourage that belief. We're still early on in this and it hasn't peaked. And the more we do now to practice the social distancing and to minimize our exposure to each other. The greater chance we have of blunting the peak and to extending it further on out in time and give us more chance to prepare.
Latest news & resources: netNebraska.org/coronavirus