Welcome to living healthy Chicago.
I'm Jane Monzures.
We want to kick off today's show
with an important conversation about living healthy
in the wake of COVID-19.
So let's hear from Dr. Allison Arwady,
the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health.
(swooshing)
- It's so great to have you on Living Healthy Chicago,
because that is exactly what you aim to do every day.
- Yep, that's right, that's the job of
the Chicago Department of Public Health, 24/7.
So thanks for having me on.
- Absolutely.
We've been watching you on TV,
giving the latest updates on COVID-19
for many, many weeks now.
What's it been like to try to educate the public
while also trying to put everybody at ease?
- Yeah, it's always a tricky balancing act
because, of course, the most important thing
is that people get the information they need
to best protect themselves
and the people that they live with.
Together, sort of as a city, we understand
that the decisions that each of us makes individually
has impact on how this virus continues to spread.
- [Jane] But now that we can get out of the house,
the biggest lesson that we can take with us
is to wear our mask and wash our hands
and stay socially distant?
- I always like to also include in there
that I want people to think about their own risk
and the risk of the people who are in their bubble.
In any gathering, there could be somebody
who has COVID and just doesn't know it.
Because we know that there's transmission
when people don't have symptoms yet.
And so the reason we wear that cloth face covering,
it's a little bit about protecting us,
but it's more about protecting the other people
who we're interacting with.
But other than that, keeping that six foot distance
as much as possible is the number one.
If I had to choose one, staying home when you're sick.
Maybe that's up there with number one.
And then with that, wearing the cloth face coverings,
doing the hand hygiene, all of the things
that we've been learning over the last few months,
- [Jane] If they're not the N95 mask,
it's not going to keep the virus out.
But you're saying that the woven cloth
will eliminate droplets.
- There's a big, big decrease in terms of
what really comes out of your mouth.
When you're wearing one of those cloth face coverings.
The N95s are the ones that have really
a very tight seal around the mouth and the nose.
And those are really designed for the highest risk
medical type procedures.
But if every, if both parties are wearing
that cloth face covering,
the risk of infection goes way down.
- If you've known someone that was positive
with COVID-19 and they were sick,
how long has that person contagious?
And when can you feel comfortable being around them again?
- We know that they basically continue to shed virus
usually sort of a few days.
We've not really seen cases of shedding virus
past eight or nine days.
And so we use a 10-day cutoff.
And we basically say, from the time your symptoms started,
you need to be at least 10 days out from that.
But also the last three days of that need to be really
relatively symptom-free.
And that's because people who may have more serious illness
can have higher virus levels that could last longer.
Once they've been 10 days
with the last three days without symptoms,
they're not at risk of getting virus anymore,
or transmitting.
At that point, we just want people
back to the same precautions.
So still trying to keep the six foot distance,
wear the face covering.
We're still learning about what immunity
really can look like after COVID infection.
So I don't want people thinking,
"Oh, I've had COVID, I'm fine."
And if you look on the website, chicago.gov/coronavirus,
we have a little bit more detailed information.
- [Jane] Let's talk about public transportation
because so many of us need it to get to work.
- So we've been working with the Chicago Transit Authority
since like day one of coronavirus.
So whether you look at the buses,
where we've done everything from
have increased cleaning to allow the backdoor boarding,
to thinking about how many people can be on a bus
and what spacing can that look like.
On an individual level, I would remind you
that you want to try to keep that six foot distance.
And so if a bus or a train is really looking too crowded,
you should wait for the next one.
Other than that, if you're on the bus,
if you're touching things, as long as you wash your hands
before you touch your eyes, nose or mouth,
again, remember the virus needs to
get into your respiratory tract,
there's not a significant risk of transmission
just from being on the CTA.
You know, I would encourage people to really come back
to public transit and as they come back
to their other activities.
Again, keeping COVID in mind.
- We are going to take a quick short break.
Can you stick around?
And when we come back, we'll continue the conversation.
- Absolutely.