Covid Update 10/2022

We have continued to see a steady stream of Covid cases over the last year, but the new variant has been mild compared to the original strains.   We’ve not had any deaths and very rare hospital visits for the newer strain of COVID. 

Our current advice is :

Vaccinate with booster, the newer bivalent vaccines do offer additional protection from the newest strains, which are still miserable, but have not required much hospital admission which is amazing. 

If you test positive stay home, stay hydrated, rest.
Monitor your oxygen saturation with a pulse oximeter.  If under 95% persistently, please call for advice or make appointment.
If your oxygen saturation is below 90% and you cannot get it up with deep breaths or walking then you’ll need to head to the Emergency Room for oxygen and further evalustion.
Treat otherise as you would a cold, with tylenol,Ibuprofen or Naproxen if you have normal kidney function.  Quarantine for 5 days, then wear a mask the next 5 days. 

If you have other people at home, try to stay away and sleep in extra room if available.  Just as with the flu, while it’s not a deadly as it once was, it’s still miserable and you don’t need to spread it. 

For higher risk folks there is a medication cocktail called paxlovid but it has several drug and yet but can help some. This would require a visit or extended web encounter at best. 

It interacts with many medications and ay be in short supply so be careful.