Legacy Concierge Medicine of Jupiter and the Palm Beaches

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This year, the novel coronavirus has swept the globe, quickly becoming the most severe pandemic in recent history since the influenza pandemic, 100 years ago. Virus symptoms can vary greatly. Some cases show mild or no symptoms and others are severe. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been a total of 4,974,959 cases in the United States alone as of July 31, 2020. Of those cases, 161,284 have resulted in death. In Palm Beach County, there have been a total of 37,018 cases and 931 deaths – making it the third most at risk county in Florida behind Broward and Miami-Date.

The spread of COVID-19 has changed the way we all interact in our daily lives, and with no end in sight (there is currently no vaccine), it’s important to familiarize yourself with the measures you can take to prevent from spreading or contracting this deadly virus.

covid-19 and washing hands — The CDC recommends washing your hands for at least 20 seconds.

1. Wash Your Hands

At a young age, we’ve all learned that it’s important to wash your hands. But at that age, we never imagined that such a simple action could save lives. Properly washing your hands (20 seconds with soap and water) will kill any pathogens that you’ve picked up as a result of touching surfaces. Make sure to lather your hands with soap –washing the back of your hands, between your fingers and under your nails. We at Concierge Medicine of Jupiter recommend starting from your forearm and working down to your fingers.

Wash as frequently as possible! But especially remember to wash:

before and after eating
before and after visiting the restroom
before and after touching your face/nose/mask covering
before and after going out in public
before and after touching your pets or other animals

Of course, if no soap and water is available, please use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol or more.

Washing your hands has always been part of most of our daily habits. Though now, more than ever, and with more frequency, it is crucial.

social distancing and covid-19 — The CDC recommends allowing for a 6 feet between people when in public.

2. Avoid Close Contact

Social-distancing is extremely effective. It’s important that when you are outside of your home, you provide yourself two arm-lengths (6 feet) of distance from people who don’t live in your home.

The way COVID-19 spreads is via respiratory droplets that can be transmitted through coughing, sneezing, or even talking. Effective distancing can lower the risk of inhaling these droplets. And effective distancing, combined with the use of a face covering is ideal.

3. Cover Your Mouth and Nose with a Mask When Around Others

Recently, Palm Beach County has issued a mandate, requiring everyone to wear a mask when they are out in public. And since, there has been an extension of the facial coverings directive:

Palm Beach County Emergency Order 2020-16

Extension of the facial coverings directive Emergency Order 2020-012 has been extended for an additional thirty (30) days until 12:01 a.m. August 23, 2020. This order applies in all incorporated and unincorporated areas of Palm Beach County. (as found on https://discover.pbcgov.org)

Wearing your mask, is not only safe, but it is required.

disinfecting surfaces to combat covid — Disinfecting your surfaces is an important step in the process of combatting COVID-19.

4. Clean and Disinfect Your Space

Although, you are regularly keeping your hands clean, at one point or another, you may transmit pathogens to a frequently touched surface like a work desk, door knob, light switch sink faucet, or cell phone. Make sure you clean these surfaces regularly with a soapy detergent, following it up with a household disinfectant.

If you think these actions are overboard, just think about your phone. You bring it with you everywhere. You pull it out at work, at the store, at a restaurant, or even in the restroom. You also may set it down on a surface in one of the aforementioned locations. So, you then place your phone in your pocket, wash your hands, then touch your “infected” phone minutes later.  If you wash your hands, disinfect phone. You can follow the instructions of your respective phone manufacture in order to disinfect properly. Cleaning and disinfecting your space is a step that is important to include in your routine.

no-touch temperature reader to monitor covid-19 — No-touch temperature readers are great for monitoring COVID-19 symptoms.

5. Monitor Your Health Closely

Familiarize yourself with the COVID-19 symptoms and self-evaluate regularly. Are you experiencing:

fever/chills
cough
shortness of breath
fatigue
muscle aches
headache
sore throat
congestion
nausea
diarrhea
new loss of taste or sense of smell

A great monitoring habit is to regularly take your temperature.

At some point, you may be required to or electively decide to get tested. If you are looking for local testing, please call the Health Care District of Palm Beach County Testing Hotline for an appointment: 561.642.1000.

All It Takes is the Extra Effort

Though living through a pandemic can be incredibly stressful and anxiety inducing, it’s a comforting to strip everything in our lives back down to the basics of health and safety. Our health is a basic necessity. If we take the above extra measures to keep ourselves and family members safe from COVID-19, we can retain our good health. And our good health the most important thing in our lives right now.

Concierge Medicine of Jupiter and COVID-19

Since the coronavirus outbreak, we at Concierge Medicine of Jupiter have been offering our vulnerable patients the ability to undergo drive-thru testing, including drawing blood, testing for COVID-19 and injections all done in the parking-lot, outside of our office.

The safety measures we’ve taken for inside our office includes daily temperature checks and the testing of our staff in addition to following the above guidelines.

If you’re feeling apprehensive about the coronavirus, feel free to call us instead of worrying. We can test, and if needed, we can admit you in the safest way to the medical center. We also offer telemedicine! We are by your side through this, and every, ordeal. We will do anything we can to keep our patients safe!