CDC releases new social guidelines for COVID-19
Hamilton County doctor says new measures "empower the citizens"
HAMILTON COUNTY, Tenn. (WDEF) — On Thursday, the C-D-C released new safety and social guidelines for COVID-19.
The agency no longer recommends maintaining a 6-foot distance from others but believes efforts should rather focus on reducing severe sickness from the virus.
Dr. Stephen Miller of the Hamilton Co. Health Dept. agrees with the CDC’s new guidelines, and also says COVID case numbers are dropping in Hamilton County.
In addition to relaxing social distancing, the CDC also says contact tracing should be limited to select high-risk locales and living situations, such as hospitals, prisons and nursing homes.
Miller believes these actions justify that the agency is putting more trust in the public.
“It seems like what they’re trying to ask us as citizens is to employ some common sense,” Miller said. “If we are ill, if we are sick with this, we obviously need to not come back to work. I think that they’re trying to empower the citizens to try to make their own decisions.”
However, not all guidelines have been altered.
The agency still says those who test positive should quarantine for at least five days while wearing masks around others for another ten.
But right in time for the new school year, Miller also believes that the relaxed guidelines will only help both students and their families.
“The other students that are around a student that is ill with this will still be able to come to school,” Miller said. “They’ll simply have to mask up. So, I think that will cause a lot less disruption as far as the administration, the teachers and then, of course, the parents that have to try to find another means of what to do with their children during the work week.”
Miller says the county’s average seven-day case count currently borders 100 cases a week.
Despite numbers remaining low, he says the severity of the pandemic shouldn’t be lost on the public, as many are still hospitalized from the virus.
“It still has as many as 40 or more of our fellow citizens here in Hamilton County hospitalized,” Miller said. “It’s still causing significant illness and we have to understand that our children do spread it to our elder adults and those that are at risk from this. It’s important that we try to immunize all of our population.”
Miller also said the county reported only 78 cases of COVID-19 on Friday afternoon.
In more positive news, when asked if these are low numbers for Hamilton County, he said no — they’re “lower.”
