Jefferson County has one of the lowest death rates due to Covid-19 in the U.S.,” Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry reported today during the Public Health meeting.
“It’s something that we’ve worked really hard to do.”
The death rate in Jefferson is 30.
She explained that the virus is now “truly endemic” and widely circulating throughout our community.
"Wearing a high quality mask (indoors) goes a long way to reduce your probability of getting COVID-19 if you are vaccinated and boosted, and that goes a long way to reducing
severity of illness and reducing the probability that you'll be hospitalized or die due to COVID-19,” Dr. Berry said.
The dominant variant circulating in our country and in our state is BA.5, a sub-variant of the Omicron It is more transmissible than earlier variants and shows increased immune
escape — the ability to get around immunity from prior infection or from vaccination.
"I particularly want to stress for anyone over 65, it's really critical that you stay up to date on your vaccinations, which does mean for at this point to get all the way up to date,” she
said.
Dr. Berry said that with the strain on our local health care system, an option might be to consider telehealth services.
Original source can be found here.