VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Over the last month, medical experts say COVID cases in Virginia decreased by 60 percent and hospitalizations by 25 percent.
It sounds good, but doctors said Virginia’s seven-day average of new cases is still much higher than the surges we saw in May and August.
“We are making great progress, but we’ve got a long way to go,” said EVMS Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Edward Oldfield.
Even as COVID cases decline and vaccines rollout across Virginia, Dr. Oldfield said people need to stay cautious.
“The reason these cases are coming down, is not because of vaccine, because we haven’t vaccinated enough people yet,” Dr. Oldfield said. “This is because people are wearing a mask, they are social distancing. They are not interacting with people indoors that are not part of their family.”
He said the first shot of Moderna or Pfizer is 50 to 60 percent effective. The second dose is even better, but that doesn’t let anyone off the hook.
“You don’t get to 95 percent until a couple of weeks after your second dose,” Dr. Oldfield said.
After you are fully vaccinated doctors said a mask helps protect against COVID variants and stops you from potentially spreading asymptomatic COVID infections.
“As a scientist, I believe that it is likely that the vaccine probably does prevent asymptomatic infection,” said UVA Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Patrick Jackson. “But, until we have that sort of data in hand, it is really not the sort of thing we want to run the risk.”
Dr. Jackson said the next several months won't be easy.
“If we wanted to mess up at this point, the number one thing you would do is not vaccinate enough people, and have people stop wearing masks and social distancing,” Dr. Jackson said. “Because that is a recipe for developing viruses that are then resistant to the vaccine.”
Masks do more than prevent COVID spread.
“Because people are wearing masks, we are not seeing all the other winter viral diseases,” said Dr. Oldfield. “We have had essentially no influenza this year.”
Dr. Oldfield said people will assess risk differently after the second shot.
“Some people aren’t going to change much from what they did before the vaccine, other people are going to say, 'Hey, 95 percent, that is good enough for me,'” Dr. Oldfield said. "'I am going to fly, I am going to eat at an indoor restaurant.'”
Whatever the activity, he said don’t give up on masks or social distancing.
“If you get fatigued, COVID fatigued, the virus is not fatigued,” Dr. Oldfield. “It is just going to pick up right where it left off.”