GREENSBORO, N.C. — Just recently, health officials from states all over the nation met in DC to talk about how to transfer from Pandemic to living with COVID.
Dr. Elizabeth “Betsey” Tilson, North Carolina's State Health Director, just got back from the ASTHO COVID-19 Summit. She said the focus was making sure you have access to tools to protect yourself.
“COVID will be with us and there will be rises and falls so people need to think about what are their protective tools,” said Tilson.
What kinds of tools does she mean? Things to keep you healthy that you can choose to do and when:
- Access and Information about when you should get a vaccine or booster
- When you should get tested
- When you should get treatment
- When you should wear a mask
- When you should isolate
She said as we live with COVID and as we deal with outbreaks at work, at school, or want to avoid an outbreak from a situation, we need to decide what tools each one of us wants to use and when.
“I think about this as NC in the spring. Some days it's 40 degrees and you need a sweater some days it's 85 and you'll need fewer layers, so people will need to navigate their own personal risk and the spread in the community and think of how many layers of protection they want to put on,” said Tilson.
She mentioned how everyone has access to their own personal COVID calculator. It’s on the CDC website.
You get started and it asks you questions about contact, symptoms or positivity. Then it goes on to ask about dates and other related questions. The calculator then formulates what you should do.
So often, we have questions about our situation but can't really get a hold of a doctor, this does it for you.