COVID-19 cases in Dallas County are up by 32% right now, according to the Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation."What we're seeing is that every age demographic has gone down in cases over the last two weeks," said Dr. Joseph Chang, the Chief Medical Officer of Parkland Health."Except for one, and that is the zero to 17-year-old pediatric group. It's no coincidence that about two weeks ago, we saw all of DFW basically open up for school again.
Dr. Chang says the worry is that the pediatric group will now bring the virus home and pass the disease on to others. "What I'd love to see, obviously, is for parents to really, really think about getting their kids vaccinated," he said."Right after the kids went back to school, l for the first week and a half, we did see an uptick in the flu," said Dr. Shawn Riley, Regional Medical Director for CareNow."You're going to see fever, cough, body aches, chills, those are the hallmarks of the flu," said Dr. Riley.
To prevent both, doctors say we have to go back to the basics – some of the measures we took a lot more seriously during the pandemic. "Cover your mouth, cover your nose when you sneeze, those kinds of things," Dr. Chang said."Wash your hands after doing stuff."