As the Coronavirus continues to make its infamous tour around the world, a Huntington Beach based clinic, Elevated Health, has become one of the leading clinics to provide drive-up testing in Southern California. Dr. Matthew Abinante is the physician leading the endeavors. His passion to advocate for his patients and community has been his number one motivator. At the time I’m writing this, 7 out of 70 of the results he has received have been positive. Three were from individuals living in LA County and four were from individuals living in Orange County. Dr. Abinante has been working tirelessly since he started accepting patients earlier this month and has been doing over 250 FREE tele-screening by email a day.
For more information on their testing program, pricing, and how to get in contact with Dr. Abinante, please click here.
Since the start of the Coronavirus outbreak, the CDC has pinpointed groups of people that are at a greater risk in contracting COVID-19: those that live in a community that is experiencing an outbreak of COVID-19, those over the age of 60, and those that have underlying health conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and lung disease. The most recent recommendations from the CDC advises these individuals to take extra precautions to help protect themselves.
- Stock up on supplies.
- Take everyday precautions to keep space between yourself and others.
- When you go out in public, keep away from others who are sick, limit close contact and wash your hands often.
- Avoid crowds as much as possible.
- Avoid cruise travel and non-essential air travel.
- During a COVID-19 outbreak in your community, stay home as much as possible to further reduce your risk of being exposed.
Infectious disease experts have outlined the precautions above in hopes lessen the cases in the United States. If a COVID-19 outbreak were to occur in our community, it has the potential of lasting a long time. Depending on how critical the outbreak was, there could be further community actions to reduce people’s risk. Last update March 22, 2020, the California State of Public Health Officer and Director of the California Department of Public Health has ordered all individuals living in the State of California to stay home or at their place of residence, except as needed to maintain continuity of operation of the federal critical infrastructure sectors. Read the full executive order here. In short, everyone in California is required to stay home except to get food, care for relatives or friends, get necessary health care, or go to an essential job. If you go out, keep at least 6 feet of distance.
If you fear you, a family member, or friend have come into close contact with someone with COVID-19 and have been exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 like fever, dry cough, difficulty breathing or fever contact your doctor straight away. Also, if you have come back from a trip specifically to endemic areas like Italy, China, Iran, Japan, Seattle, Northern California, or New York it is recommended you consider getting tested. Keep in mind that many cases are mild and show no symptoms. It’s this very reason why social distancing is crucial!
Be safe and cautious of those around you!
