- As wildfires in California and Hurricane Ida in Louisiana strike, some people in those areas might be at greater risk for COVID-19, especially people who need to take refuge in community shelters.
- If you live in an area where a natural disaster takes place, there are ways to protect yourself.
- Preparing ahead of time for a natural disaster should include ways to protect yourself from COVID-19.
As multiple natural disasters hit the United States, including the raging wildfires in California and Hurricane Ida that just hit Louisiana, COVID-19 continues to surge.
Combined, these situations put more strain on an already overwhelmed hospital system.
For instance, Texas Medical Center experienced high admissions numbers for a few months. Now, those numbers are beginning to plateau. However, the hospital may need to take on patients from Louisiana, if hospital evacuations are needed there.
While Dr. William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, says moving patients could put strain on the hospital they are transferred to, he says the spread of COVID-19 in these situations isn’t as alarming.
“If they’re going from hospital to hospital, obviously in the transport, healthcare workers have to be very careful to protect themselves and protect the patients. However, I’m less concerned about that since in the healthcare setting everybody’s got protective equipment on and should be vaccinated,” Schaffner told Healthline.
But he is concerned about people who have to evacuate their homes and transfer to shelters or stay with other people temporarily.
“This kind of large rescale relocation of people in disaster circumstances often results in the spread of infectious diseases, particularly respiratory infections, as people are put together in shelters or temporary housing or visit with family and relatives,” said Schaffner.
When people are forced to leave their homes in a rush and to crowd together with others, they may not be prepared with masks and may not be able to remain physically distanced.
“Many people who they encounter indoors will not be vaccinated, so there will be the virus out there spreading in some of those circumstances,” Schaffner said.
Additionally, COVID-19 vaccination sites in the affected locations most likely won’t be open and routine medical care might be on hold, so testing in the event that people develop symptoms will be limited.
Source: healthline