 Coming up on this edition of Abledon On Air, we talk about the COVID uptick 2024 precautions that you should take, especially when visiting a hospital. All that and much more when Abledon On Air starts right now. Major sponsors for Abledon On Air include Washington County Mental Health, where hope and support come together. Media sponsors for Abledon On Air include Park Chester Times, Muslim Community Report, WWW, this is the Bronx.info, Associated Press Media Editors, New York Parrot Online Newspaper, U.S. Press Corps Domestic and International, Anchor FM, and Spotify. Partners for Abledon On Air include Jihad of New York and New England, where everyone belongs, the Orthodox Union, the Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired of Vermont, the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Center Vermont Habitat for Humanity, Montefiore Medical Center of the Bronx, Rose of Kennedy Center of Bronx, New York, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of the Bronx. Abledon On Air has been seen in the following publications, Park Chester Times, WWW, this is the Bronx.com, New York Parrot Online Newspaper, Muslim Community Report, www.h.com, and the Montpelier Bridge. Abledon On Air is part of the following organizations, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Boston, New England Chapter, and the Society of Professional Journalists. Welcome to the edition of Abledon On Air, the one and only program that focuses on the needs, concerns, and achievements of the definitely able. I've always been your host, Lauren Seiler. Arnie is not here today, she's recuperating in rehab. We would like to thank our sponsors and partners, the Association of the Blind Vermont, the Division for the Blind Vermont, Parrot TV, and many, many, many others. Let's begin. There has been a COVID uptick recently, especially in hospitals, and when visiting a rehab, you will see that staff is wearing masks, and sometimes some of the residents are wearing masks or clients. So according to our friends at PBS News Hour, COVID is surging again, and here's what to know and why experts encourage caution. The U.S. is experiencing another COVID uptick, infections after the holidays, with hospitalizations rising for the eighth week in a row. A new dominant variant called JN.1 has quickly spread to account more than 60% of cases, and to let you know that. So, precautions when, let's go to precautions in COVID. So here is a kit. If you need help with learning how to use a COVID kit, well, this was for 2023, but we can also use this for 2024. I think, no, this is the wrong way. Let's not use this. Tips and disabilities. Let's do that. Okay, there we go. Okay. So the, this past December 3rd was the International Day for People with Disabilities. Many people around the country are dealing with COVID. So let's go, you must have access to health services. Initial health services is still in some countries inaccessible for people with disabilities who tend to have more healthcare needs, such as international countries and so on. So for people who have COVID who tend to have more healthcare needs than normal times, now health services, which are often insufficient in poorer countries or poorer places, have become harder to access due to the COVID restriction. Measures are because of medical staff. Hospitals and nursing homes don't have adequate medical staff sometimes. And there has been like COVID restriction measures because of medical staff and focused on responding to the pandemic. Discrimination and stigma has intensified during the pandemic. Medical staff may deny healthcare to persons with disabilities, but let's hope they don't do that. And during the pandemic it intensified. A lot of things were closed. People with disabilities can see the health, if you see your health status worsening, risking complications and additional things and functionality. There's a website that I'm looking at www.hius.org, which stands for humanity and inclusion. It's a website around the world. Humanity inclusion supports people with disabilities that are often left out during a crisis response. So this is very important. Raising awareness for, now this is in Nepal, but around the world there are services for people with disabilities to access, but inadequate awareness, raising awareness for COVID-19. People with disabilities are often left out of adequate medication and things like that. For instance, if people need to find out about COVID-19, a lot of leaflets or things that are accessed are not accessible due to not having large print. So let's, but let me go to the Vermont Department of Health, which is important. Can't hold up. No, no, no, wrong one. So let's go to COVID stuff here for Department of Health. Okay, there we go. Let's get to COVID stuff. Okay, COVID-19, this is the Department of Health. COVID-19 is a disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, first surfaces that deal. Let's go here. There we go. COVID-19 is a disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, first discovered in 2019. The virus spreads when an infected person breathes out droplets that are very small particles that contain the virus. These droplets are particles that can be breathed in and other people or it can land on their eyes, nose, and mouth. In certain circumstances, they may contaminate surfaces that they touch. If you have a pre-existing condition, such as a heart attack or anything like that, COVID can be a situation that people have to deal with. So, and it also depends on your age. Symptoms and treatment for COVID. The health department of Vermont recommends getting tested if you are developed symptoms at any time. People with COVID may have a wide range of symptoms including no symptoms at all, mild, moderate symptoms or needing medical attention for severe illness, and even no symptoms at all can spread the virus to others. Symptoms can start two to 14 days after exposure to the virus that might include 100.4 or higher fever, cough, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, chills, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, sore throat, no loss or new loss or taste or smell, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea. Now, if you test positive, if you are a person with a disability who tests positive for COVID-19, you must isolate yourself as soon as possible and receive your test result, even if you are vaccinated or never have symptoms. Isolation may mean staying home or staying away from other people at least for five days from the date of your positive test result or you start your symptoms whichever is earlier. You can end isolation after a five-day mark. If your symptoms have improved and you have no fever for at least 24 hours, the use in medicine can reduce fevers. The guidance does not apply to care workers. Please check with your employer, school, child care program or learn about their return and isolation policies. Sorry, if you are not able to isolate because of financial care, sorry, if you're not able to isolate because of financial care or other reasons, you can still lower the risk by not getting people sick. Wearing a well-fitted, in other words, if you have to go to work and you can't stay home, wear a well-fitted quality mask or disposable mask under a cloth mask. Limiting close contact with other people as possible, washing your hands with soap and water or use of hand sanitizer, cleaning and disinfecting surfaces as much as possible and all of that. Guidance for close contact. Close contact means six feet or 15 minutes over a 24-hour period of someone with COVID while they're contagious. To determine if you were in close contact, consider time spent with someone with COVID starting two days before they develop symptoms or date they tested positive. If no symptoms until they started isolation, the health department recommends getting tested if you develop symptoms at any time. Even if you are vaccinated or have recently had COVID-19, if you do not have symptoms or been in close contact with someone with COVID-19, it is recommended to test five full days after the COVID exposure. If you use a home antigen test and result in a negative test 48 hours again, if you, let me repeat that, if you use a home test and the result is negative, test again 48 hours later. If you have a PCR or LAMP test, L-A-M-P test, follow-up test is needed. The guidance does not apply to healthcare workers. Treatment for COVID-19. Some people are likely to get very sick from COVID. If you are age 50 or older and have a medical condition, that might put you at risk. Reach out to your department of healthcare provider about treatment as soon as possible of the positive test result. Don't delay. Treatment must be started within days before you develop the symptoms to be active. People who are at a higher risk and speak to their doctor should get treatment if vaccinated or experienced mild symptoms by getting treatment. You could have less serious symptoms and may lower your chance of illness getting worse and needing healthcare in the hospital. For more information, you can go to www.healthvermont.gov. That website once again is healthvermont.gov. Oh, if you have, if you need help with American Sign Language or other languages, you can go down here to the Department of Health which is healthvermont.gov. It's in the following languages. American Sign Language, Arabic, Burmese, Dari, French, Nepali, Spanish, Swahili and other languages. There are COVID fact sheets here in different languages if you need. Okay. So that's www.healthvermont.gov. That's www.healthvermont.gov. And there are other, there's a link here www.covid.gov. And you can get, if you are in another country, you can search for your country and, and you can get the languages. Now it says here on COVID.gov, www.covid.gov, wear a mask to protect yourself and others when you go indoors, especially in hospitals. Free N95 masks are available in many local pharmacies, healthcare providers. Please check your local area and also vaccines. Being fully vaccinated and boosted is the best way to protect from any hospitalizations. Everyone that is age five and up, age five and up is eligible for new vaccines that have been updated to restore protection target against the army crime variant. Please find www.covid.gov with more information on this and other types of things when it comes to at-home testing. The latest guidance used at home tests and what to do with the results to get a home test. You can log on here symptoms of care. If you're immune compromised, so let's go to that resource that's important. Okay. So if you have the following situation and COVID, I'm not going to read this whole thing, people with certain medical conditions, if you are a family member, a high risk with severe illness, wear a mask or respirator with greater protection and with the public indoor spaces in your area. If you have COVID and in the hospital, you can click here and this brings you to the CDC website as well. And you can get more information. Talk to your healthcare provider about wearing a mask in the medium of COVID and hospital admissions. If you have symptoms that are constant with COVID and you're age 50 years or older and you are high risk of getting very sick, you may be eligible for treatment. Contact your healthcare provider to start this treatment within a couple of days. Now, one last thing, I'm going to go here, underlying medical conditions associated with high risk with COVID and other information for healthcare professionals. There's an updated list for health conditions. So let's go here. This webpage or this information I'm giving you provides evidence-based resource for healthcare professionals. So it depends on your age. You can click and find more. So if you have and it gives you a listing on this webpage about asthma, cancer, cardiovascular problems, chronic kidney disease, so on and so forth, diabetes. Also, if you have Down syndrome and other disabilities, you can find, yeah, disabilities including Down syndrome. People with other situations should consult the CDC, go to www.cdc.gov, the Centers for Disease Control, www.cdc.gov. Please wear a mask during these such conditions. For more information on that, please go to the CDC and find out about the N95. Most public buildings now if you want to wear a mask, you can. It's extremely important to be careful when coming in close contact with someone who has COVID, such as someone in the hospital or nursing home. This has been the COVID update for 2024. I'm Lauren Seiler. Arlene is not here today. She's recuperating in rehab. See you next time on the next edition of Abledon On Air. Major sponsors for Abledon On Air include Washington County Mental Health, where hope and support come together. Media sponsors for Abledon On Air include Park Chester Times, Muslim Community Report, WWW, this is the Bronx.info, Associated Press Media Editors, New York Power Online Newspaper, U.S. Press Corps Domestic and International, Anchor FM, and Spotify. Partners for Abledon On Air include Yehad of New York and New England, where everyone belongs, the Orthodox Union, the Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired of Vermont, the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Central Vermont Habitat for Humanity, Montefere Medical Center of the Bronx, Rose of Kennedy Center of Bronx, New York, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of the Bronx. Abledon On Air has been seen in the following publications, Park Chester Times, WWW, this is the Bronx.com, New York Power Online Newspaper, Muslim Community Report, WWW.H.com, and the Montpelier Bridge. Abledon On Air is part of the following organizations, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Boston, New England Chapter, and the Society of Professional Journalists.