Wellness Wednesday: Top things you need to know today about COVID-19

As Intermountain Healthcare continues to respond to the quickly evolving COVID-19 situation, they're looking at everything through the lens of keeping patients, caregivers, and members of the community as healthy and safe as possible.

Every day the state is testing more and more people. As of today more than 20,000 people have been tested.

What is Intermountain doing to test more people and why is testing so important?
Intermountain Healthcare announced today its ramping-up COVID-19 assessments and curbside testing at 20 community sites throughout Utah that will enable the collection of up to 1,500 samples and 1,000 tests to be processed per day. This is the largest integrated network of community testing sites in the state. Testing locations have been strategically placed to where the needs are the greatest and will help meet the growing demand for COVID-19 tests.
Intermountain has tested more than 9,000 people since March 16 through our community testing program, in-clinic swabs, and hospital patient tests.

We now have 91 hospitalizations and more than 1,000 confirmed cases in Utah, which means there are a lot of people caring for someone who is sick or possibly waiting for test results? What do these people need to do?
According to the CDC's recommendation, if you are sick with COVID-19, suspect you are infected with the virus that causes COVID-19, or caring for someone with COVID-19, you should take steps to help prevent the disease from spreading to people in your home and community, which includes:

• Self-isolate at home. Stay home and in another room, away from people. If possible, use a separate bathroom and wear a facemask if someone else is in the same room.
• Clean and disinfect all high-touch surfaces multiple times throughout the day. High-touch surfaces includes phones, remote controls, countertops, light switches, doorknobs, keyboards, etc.
• Wash your hands often.
• Do not share household items like plates, towels, bedding, and pillows.
• Keep track of symptoms (fever, cough, or shortness of breath), which may appear two to 14 days after exposure. If your symptoms worsen, call to seek medical attention. If you need to call 911, notify the emergency dispatcher that you are COVID-19 positive or being evaluated for COVID-19.

There is a lot of information available online, but not all of it is accurate. Where should people turn for the most accurate and up-to-date information?
Good resources for information
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus [cdc.gov]
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019 [who.int]
https://coronavirus.utah.gov/ [coronavirus.utah.gov]
https://intermountainhealthcare.org/ [intermountainhealthcare.org] and specifically
https://intermountainhealthcare.org/covid19 [intermountainhealthcare.org]
https://intermountainhealthcare.org/covid19-coronavirus/do-i-need-testing/ [intermountainhealthcare.org]
Your local health department web site
Intermountain COVID-19 Hotline 844-442-5225

Intermountain COVID-19 Assessment & Testing Locations: