LEWES, Del. - The state projects the COVID-19 pandemic will peak in Delaware in August, according to Dr. David Tam, Beebe Healthcare's President. Dr. Tam spoke with WRDE on the myths about masks and where his hospital stands at the start of the summer season.
"Just because we think that August is now when we will see the peak to occur, that peak is lower. And that's a good thing, because less people are sick, less people are in the hospital, and less people are on ventilators, which that was initially projected back in March when we started this," says Dr. Tam.
The hospital is now preparing to increase the number of elective surgeries it performs, by testing patients and staff, and having the right amount of PPE.
"We are doing things safely as we ramp up ... as you can imagine there are many things like physical therapy, occupational therapy, or other support services that need to open up before we start doing those kinds of cases," he says.
With many questions surrounding cloth masks, Dr. Tam says the whole purpose of wearing a cloth mask is to worn to prevent you from giving the virus to someone else.
"As you know many people may actually be infected but not be symptomatic. So we want to make sure we do everything possible to reduce the transmission, by making sure people wear the masks, and so they are not giving it to someone else. The mask doesn't necessarily prevent me from getting the virus from somebody else, especially if someone is not wearing a mask," says Dr. Tam.
And the difference between an N-95 mask and a cloth mask is this: "The N-95 mask is only to prevent you from catching the infection, the cloth mask is designed to help reduce the transmission of the infection by respiratory droplets to somebody else."
Dr. Tam says they have enough supplies because they have not had a big surge.
"We are fine with PPE we are also fine with testing, and this is an area where we are working very closely with the state," he says.
Beebe Healthcare is doing things as safely as possible because the risk is not over yet.
