Feeling sick? Here's what's going around

It seems like just about everywhere you turn these days, someone is sick. It’s not your imagination. Good Morning Cleveland Anchor Tiffany Tarpley interviewed a Vermilion nurse practitioner to find out what’s going around.

“We’re definitely seeing viral upper respiratory infections, quite a bit, a lot of it can turn into sinus infections and that kind of thing and coughs that linger,” said Mercy Health Family Nurse Practitioner Nicole Leach.

"We’ve also actually seen a recent uptick in COVID in the last few weeks which we had not seen for the last month or two.”

Leach said a lot of times, social gatherings are the source.

“In the summer, a lot more people are active, a lot more people like to get out and enjoy each other’s company, which is great, but it does lead to a spread of germs a lot of times.”

A quick check of the Ohio Department of Health’s website shows, as of June 27, a slight uptick in reported COVID cases over the past three weeks:

“We went a couple of weeks where we would only see a few cases of COVID a week and now we’re seeing upwards of maybe a few a day or so, which isn’t a ton, but usually if we’re noticing a little bit of an increase it’s usually a little bit more widespread,” she said.

If you’re seeing prolonged systems of an upper respiratory infection, which on average lasts three to seven days, there could be several reasons.

“A lot of it depends on the virus, a lot depends on people’s immune system,” said Leach. “Are they taking care of themselves, are they getting enough rest, are they getting enough sleep?”

Leach said in general, good hand hygiene is important.

“We’re going into Fourth of July, and that type of thing where we do a lot of cookouts and gatherings, which is great and it’s fun, and we should do them but definitely washing hands before the buffet of food, and that type of thing, is always a good idea.

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