Physicians plead with community, work to mitigate stress on health system

As we head in to the weekend, members of the Governor's Physicians Advisory Group and Department of Public Health urge the community to please stay home, stay healthy, and if a situation isn't an emergency, stay away from emergency rooms.

"If you have mild symptoms, call your provider. Get seen at the clinic-level - do not go to the emergency room," strongly urged Dr. Hoa Nguyen. It's usually the place you go to when in dire need of help, but the tables have turned as the surge of COVID cases rises. Dr. Nguyen, who chairs the PAG, says emergency rooms at both the Guam Memorial Hospital and Guam Regional Medical City are getting slammed.

He explained, "Because they are really saturated at the ER with all the sick patients."

From now until next week Tuesday, the PAG is anticipating the number of patients to fill the ER at both hospitals as COVID infections continue to peak. "Everywhere you go, there's going to be a wait just because we are seeing so much patients at this point," he grimly anticipated.

Territorial epidemiologist Dr. Anne Pobutsky has been tracking the numbers and demographics of the COVID infections - almost half of the current cases were recorded in the past week and were in children and young adults.

She made a sobering projection about education, saying, "I don't even know if kids are going to be able to go back to school until next year. I don't even know if that's possible." So as we head into our second weekend on lockdown, Dr. Pobutsky is urging people…to chill out.

"We're trying to simmer down the use of the hospital," she said. "At the same time, if you're really sick, go to the clinic. Go to the hospital if you've got the sniffles and you're 25 and no other symptoms, maybe you have it stay home and don't party with your friends - play with your phone, watch videos, read a book."