Hospital CEO Stresses Mask and Social Distancing

Sydney Martin was outside Huntsville City Hall where local leaders explained what they think is behind the spike in coronavirus cases across Madison County.

Now our coverage moves to madison county - where the number of cases is rapidly rising, waay 31's sydney martin is live outside huntsville city hall.

That's where local leaders gave their first update in a week and explained what they think is behind the spike in numbers across madison county.

Dr. pam hudson with crestwood today told me people aren't social distancing and haven't been wearing face coverings.

Something she's confident will help slow the spread of the virus...and here's why.

"covid 19 has gained and is continuing to gain footholds in our community.

Why is that?"

"i think that it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that the things we have been talking about: failure to follow social distancing, failure to follow masking recommendation and face covering.

I'll start with the first one, social distancing."

"locations of very very high risk are without a doubt bars and restaurants where social distancing is occurring usually standing side by side or sitting side by side.

You take your mask off to eat or drink or have conversation."

"face coverings, we've talked before, if 80 percent of our community would mask, cover their faces, then we would reduce, transmission by 90 percent.

If we're not performing at the level and certainly as i'm out and about in the community i'm seeing that we are not yet there.

We are going to continue to see this.

From doctor fauci's comments yesterday 40 percent of cases are spreading the virus when the person carrying the virus when the person carrying the virus and spreading it feels completely normal, looks completely normal.

Much asymptomatic transmission is likely going on.

So what?

1 in 10 of everybody that's infected ends up being hospitalized, so this is not a nothing disease.

30 percent of those patients will end up in an icu and of those 30 to 40% will die."

Hudson said today- the fear for her and other hospital leaders remains about healthcare workers getting sick- and the hospitals having places to put patients- but no one to treat them.

With the county's mandatory mask order in place for 24 hours now, hudson hopes people will now take masking and social distancing seriously to stop that from happening.

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