Area Health Officials Gives Covid-19 Update

The effectiveness of face coverings was the topic of a news conference between Amarillo City Leaders and health professionals this morning.

Dr Brian Wies, Chief Medical Officer at Northwest Texas Hospital, presented a study by Duke University that showed that N-95, surgical masks and isolation masks are very effective in guarding  from exposure to the virus.

The study also showed that double layered cotton masks work very well but one glitch, the study found was that fleece gators are worse than wearing nothing at all because of  the holes in the material.

Casie Stoughton, Amarillo Public Health Director, also spoke on the difference between face masks and shields.

She pointed out that the two are not equal because masks provide filtering protection and shields do not offer the same protection.

Health Officials also spoke about the latest hospital numbers.

Northwest Texas Healthcare System has 20 Covid-19 positive patients with 18 in the ICU, and 7 on ventilators.

They have treated 83 patients with remdesivir, with 7 patients currently under treatment at this time.

BSA has 26 positive patients, with 14 in the ICU, 1 in the pediatric ICU, 11 on the medical surge unit and 10 on the ventilators.

52 patients have been treated with remdesivir and over 200 with dexamethasone.

The Amarillo VA has 1 positive patient in house and 24 on home isolation and 1 PUI.