Forth Valley virus patients recovering

Dr Graham Foster, Forth Valley’s director of public health, said it was important to get the message out that people had been discharged when it was safe to do so.As the Scottish and UK death tolls rise – with the Prime Minister himself in intensive care – more and more people are facing up to just how deadly COVID-19 can be.And some have been nervous about those who have had the illness returning to their communities.Dr Foster said: “We want to be reassuring that these people are not a big infection risk and they don’t need to be treated any differently.“They will obviously do the self-isolation that everyone else is doing and obey the same rules as everyone else but people don’t need to worry about them.“People need to get used to the idea that the normal path of COVID is that you become unwell for a period of time, usually seven days, and then you are safe after that to be discharged.”“The vast majority of people who get the virus will only experience mild symptoms and after seven days they are no longer infectious.Dr Foster explained that the first cases in Forth Valley had been identified people through contact tracing weeks ago and he said that all of them are now fully recovered.He explained: “They were admitted to hospital so we could monitor them carefully because everyone was learning about COVID at that time and they very helpfully agreed to come into hospital and get tested every day.“They are now released and well, back home.”“People tend to recover clinically after seven to ten days but we are finding that the cough takes two or three weeks weeks to get better, although you’re not infectious after seven days.“If people have a bad dose they might not want to go back to work after seven days and take more time to recover and that’s fine, they should absolutely do that.“The important thing is that if after seven days you feel like you’re getting worse, and if you’re getting breathless then that’s the time to seek medical attention and lift the phone to 111.”Dr Foster said the numbers of people in Forth Valley with coronavirus was very difficult to estimate at the moment and numbers of those who have recovered was equally difficult to calculate.“The idea of publishing recovery numbers is something we really want to do,” said Dr Foster.“It’s tricky to know where we draw the line as to when someone is actually better, but approximately half of all those who have been diagnosed have already full recovered and many are on their way to recovery.”Coming up with a total is also difficult because the advice for most people is to self-isolate rather than seek medical help.“But it’s good that we are talking about recovery because many, many more people will recover than will die of the disease,” he said.He confirmed that the numbers of deaths in Forth Valley will not be released until there are sufficient numbers to ensure that individuals cannot be identified.

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