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By Joseph Haney
Monday marked a somber anniversary for the Rockbridge area.
The first cases of COVID19 within the county were confirmed on March 20, 2020. Ten days later, a third case was confirmed in Buena Vista, and within a week, the total number of cases in the county had risen to 10: three in Lexington, three in the county and four in Buena Vista.
In the past three years, the number of reported cases throughout the Rockbridge area has reached almost 10,000, with nearly 5,100 in the county, just over 2,200 in B uena Vista a nd nearly 2,600 in Lexington, according to the Virginia Department of Health. The total number of deaths reported in the area is 170.
By and large, at least for now, spread of the virus is down, not just in the Rockbridge area, but throughout the Central Shenandoah Health District, Interim Director Dr. Elaine Perry told The News-Gazette on Friday. The health district, and much of the state, is currently classified as having a low level of community spread by the Center for Disease Control (CDC). Community spread data still tracks the number of reported cases, but the level of community spread is based more on the number of severe cases and hospitalizations.
Covid “Right now, things are doing much, much better than they were even several months ago,” Perry said. “We’re in better shape, but we want people to be aware that there are still people getting sick from COVID19 in our area.”
One of the most unique and identifiable symptoms of COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic was a loss of taste and smell, but Perry says that symptom is less common with the more recent variants. Some of the most common symptoms of the virus are congestion, coughing and fatigue, even in the mild cases.
“The thing that has been hard with this all along is that so many of the symptoms are so nonspecific or general,” Perry said. “You still have people with COVID-19 where it’s hard to tell if it’s Covid or influenza or some other type of respiratory virus without getting tested.”
In order to continue to mitigate the spread of Covid as much as possible, Perry said that people should stay home if they have symptoms, even if they’re mild.
“That’s something that our culture really has a hard time with,” she said. “There’s the [mindset] of, ‘Oh if you don’t feel well, suck it up and go to work.’ Through COVID-19 a really positive public change was to really encourage people to, if they’re sick, if you have a cough or fever to please stay home.
“I recognize that that’s hard for some people,” she continued. “Not everyone can work from home based on their job. But to the extent that they can, it really does help, because it doesn’t only help reduce the spread of COVID-19, it helps reduce the spread of influenza and all of the infectious diseases that circulate, so that really is a key thing to think about.”
Another key step people can take to help keep the spread of Covid low is to get vaccinated. Currently, 73 percent of Virginia’s population is fully vaccinated, meaning they’ve received the initial shots and all subsequent boosters. In Rockbridge County, 60 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, with Lexington and Buena Vista having similar percentage rates (57 and 58 percent, respectively).
“It’s never too late to start the series,” Perry said. “We know that not everybody has been vaccinated, but it’s never too late to start it. And there are still people making the choice now to start the series and there are still first doses that are being given across the state.”
While the number of community vaccine clinics held throughout the health district has decreased in the past year, there are still clinics happening to help serve communities. One such upcoming clinic is being held in Goshen on April 13. The health district is also working with the Virginia Department of Health to make Covid vaccines a part of their regular vaccine clinics.
The CDC does not currently recommend wearing masks indoors in areas that have a low or medium level of community spread, but does recommend that precaution in areas with a high level of community spread. Social distancing is also no longer recommended by the CDC, but Perry said that both can be utilized by individuals on a case-bycase basis.
Other basic health steps to prevent the spread include washing your hands and coughing and sneezing into your elbow.
“Those things really do still apply and can really help, regardless of the infectious disease we’re trying to prevent,” Perry said.
One of the biggest lessons of the pandemic for the health district, Perry said, was the importance of working together to serve the community.
“I think we sort of knew it before, but it became very obvious to us that we can’t do it alone,” she said. “We’ve been very fortunate to have amazing partners, whether we’re working with school districts, universities, health care systems … The number of health care partners that supported us – and we supported them – during these efforts really has been unprecedented, at least in my public health experience. Learning how to make those connections, I think that’s been a huge lesson from this.”
Those partnerships are something the health district is very much keeping intact, even as the worst of the pandemic has passed.
“We’re continuing to work with some of the organizations we worked closely with during the pandemic, finding other ways to work with them and partner on things other than COVID-19 so we can keep those relationships strong and continue to be active in the community,” Perry said. “If we keep those relationships strong when things aren’t in a crisis mode, that definitely helps. It’s easier to reach out to someone you have a relationship with when you do have to do something that’s more dramatic or extensive like we had to do during the pandemic.”
Perry also noted that support was important, not just between organizations but within the community as a whole.
“I think we all need to recognize how difficult it was for so many people and to be mindful of that and know that we’ve been through a lot and really to take care of ourselves and know that it’s impacted us in so many different ways,” she said. “As communities, we really have gone through an awful lot, and just [try] to be mindful of that and all try to give ourselves and each other some support as we’re emerging from this.
“This looked different for different people based on where they were and what they were doing, and that’s okay,” she added. “We did have some shared experiences, but we did also have experiences that were, in a lot of cases, unique to those individuals or those families.” -As another sign of improved times, Carilion announced last week that masking is recommended but now optional at Carilion facilities.
“After a continued downward trend in COVID-19 cases in the region and given the decrease in serious Covid cases requiring admission, ICU stay and intubation, we see this as the next step in Covid’s endemic stage,” according to a post from Carilion.
“Masks will still be available to any patient, visitor and staff who want them,” the post continues. “We will continue to monitor and assess future needs. Should the situation evolve, we will comply with local, state and federal requirements accordingly.”
