BRAZOS COUNTY, TX — Roughly five months into the pandemic, the range of people getting sick is growing as people forget that this virus is transferable simply through breathing.
The focus of the novel coronavirus has taken a shift as people figure out what the new normal is going to look like while health officials remind us that we cannot forget just how easy the virus spreads.
“COVID-19 is spread through respiratory droplets and that's a fancy way of saying your breath,” says Kelly Craine with Waco-McLennan County Public Health District.
While the transfer of the virus can be through simply breathing, it is also transferred from the surfaces we touch says Craine.
“It goes from your hands to your face to inside your body so that's why you want to of course wash your hands, keep surfaces clean and avoid touch your face.”
Even with the safety guidelines suggested by CDC, some of the most cautious individuals have fallen ill.
It’s important to remember that it’s not where you go that should only worry you, but who you are around as well.
“You are more likely to get this virus from someone you know than by a stranger,” says Craine.
In terms of the most high-risk places to contract the virus, health officials say they are seeing that places can vary depending on the amount of people at a location in a given time.
“The grocery store can actually be relatively low risk as long as people stay apart from each other and everyone wears their masks. However, going to eat at a restaurant may not be as safe if people are sitting close together and obviously you have to take off your mask to eat and drink,” says Brazos County Health District’s Health Educator Mary Parrish.
Over the last few weeks, there have been more youth cases reported which some healthcare professionals are attributing to more testing, but it is a reminder that anyone can and will get the virus.
“These are people who are out and about more. This is also an age group that is being tested more,” says Parrish.
As we are about a month out from school starting, the importance of teaching your kids to social distance and wear a mask is what will keep them safe going into the fall, according to officials.
