A Conversation With Dr. Ali Hassoun Pt. 1

Dr. Ali Hasson returns to the WAAY 31 studio to discuss coronavirus in schools, health concerns about Labor Day weekend festivities, and more.

Averaged 36 new coronavirus cases per day.

We are joined now by dr. ali hassoun, if he can, disease special list from huntsville hospital to give us a better understanding of the numbers we are seeing.

>> dan shaffer: thanks again for joining us tonight.

>> dr. hassoun: thank you for having me.

>> dan shaffer: according to huntsville hospital, the number of people getting tested is around 400 to 500 each day.

Ceo spillers said they use that to determine how many are sick.

When we compare it to july when we saw nearly 1400 tested in one day, is this a sign we're headed in the right direction?

>> dr. hassoun: i think it is a good cyanoing there is less number to be tested.

But the reality at the same time is as people getting to know about the coronavirus, they pick and choose and decide about if they want to get tested or not.

So not a lot of them really willing to be tested.

I've seen people in the hospital refuse to be tested as well.

So part of it is a good sign because i can tell you in the hospital we've seen reduction of cases.

So that's some hope coming out.

So we've seen it going down.

Went up again, went down again.

It's going to be variable and look like it's going to stay like that at the moment till we see what's going to happening with opening the schools and playing sports and all that.

>> najahe sherman: one stat that we've been following closely is the number of coronavirus hospitalizations in north alabama.

Tonight we know there are nearly 120 in the huntsville hospital system.

While this number also decreased over the past month, how concerned should we be?

>> dr. hassoun: yeah, so for us it is a good sign there is less pressure on the health care system definitely and those who work in the hospitals.

But what my main concern is people is having fatigue with wearing mask and doing physical distancing.

They might feel they're more safe and secure in compared to what we had in july where people paid more attention.

And as we open up more, we're going to probably see more cases that's very evident in colleges, universities, and other schools that open up.

So i am definitely concerned.

Very cautious about being optimistic because we're going to need to wait and see how things are going to go with that the fall is coming, other virus es are going to happen as an infection.

We'll see how this is going to go.

>> dan shaffer: seems like doctors and hospital officials are the ones that are most concerned.

Mr. spillers, along with some local leaders, said they are concerned about this upcoming holiday weekend, the spike in cases we can see after it.

How dangerous can labor day weekend be and what is your best advice to people heading out to the parks and beaches and bars.

>> dr. hassoun: it definitely can be extremely dangerous because we've seen it with july 4, you know, holiday.

We had significant rise two weeks after that.

It was in a way, you know, all the hospital got full, the i.s.

U.s got full element.

So it -- almost.

So it will be dangerous if the people doesn't follow again the basic rules.

If you're really sick, please stay at home.

If you get exposed, get in contact with your regular doctor to be tested and quarantine yourself in the meantime.

And then just follow the masking and physical distancing and hand hygiene.

Please do that so we can avoid what happened in july.

And, you know, we want our kids to go to -- back to school.

We want our teachers to be safe.

We want everybody have more time to spend with their families and loved one rather than in the hospitals.

So if people really follow these , hopefully we can bypass the -- this holiday without any major issues.

>> najahe sherman: dr. hassoun, let's talk about the return to the classroom for a few minutes now.

Today we learned nine students and five employees in colbert county schools tested positive for coronavirus since the start of the school year.

That was on august 24.

Other districts have also reported positive cases.

So do you expect a major out break in schools across the region or do you think cases here and there will just be part of our new normal?

>> dr. hassoun: so i think there's going to be clusters of infection in every school, depending on how much they follow the guidelines line and how much they plan what to do with infected person or notify others.

My main concern is if fall comes in and we have a lot of different viral infections, it's going to be very confusing for everybody.

I think the issue is huntsville schools and madison schools made it earlier to open up and that's what's concerned me.

I know there is, you know, better picture in the way of less cases, but i think they would -- should have waited a little bit more time to see a little bit of relief more rather than push it where we're going to open september 14, i think.

>> dan shaffer: yeah, you said it's not a smart move, in your opinion, for these schools to open up their brick and mortar facilities.

And you wouldn't send your child back, correct?

>> dr. hassoun: yeah, i can tell you, again, we've seen these cases go down and then went up.

And we're talking about, what i'm seeing, not just community, hospitalization as well.

So we're not out of the covid widespread infection yet.

We're not.

So i'm not sure why they made it earlier in compared to they made the right decision of waiting nine weeks in the beginning to see how things are going to get better.

But we'll see.

>> dan shaffer: all right.

We have a lot more to discuss with dr. hassoun