COVID-19 has emerged in the South, bringing significant changes in its wake.
According to the CDC, nine cases have been reported in South Carolina.
Two professionals from AnMed Health, Jean Tillerson, a Patient Safety Manager who also oversees infection prevention, and Mandy Little, an Infection Preventionist Nurse, answered specific questions about COVID-19.
Many people have attempted to take preventative measures into their own hands, buying large portions of masks, hand-sanitizer, and for unknown reasons, toilet paper.
Health officials suggest keeping an eye out for coronavirus symptoms, which include dry cough, fever, and shortness of breath. However, these symptoms mimic symptoms of the common cold, and differentiation between the two is difficult.
"Unfortunately, quite a few of the common cold symptoms, which would be cough, fever, shortness of breath, are very similar to the symptoms people are seeing with COVID. The importance of understanding where people have traveled both internationally and within the United States becomes very important in the screening of our patients," Tillerson said.
Due to the shortage of masks, it is currently recommended that healthy people do not purchase medical-quality masks.
"For people who are out in the community who are well actually the recommendation from the CDC is that they don't wear those masks. A part of that also is making sure that those masks are available for healthcare workers to appropriately care and contain any pathogen within the organization," Tillerson said.
COVID-19 has brought cancellations of events across the nation and locally.
Converse College in Spartanburg is home to one of the most highly recognized Model Arab League (MAL) teams.
Errin Baylis, a senior Politics and Theater major and one of Converse MAL's head delegates, said team has been working towards the National University Model Arab League (NUMAL) all year.
However, NUMAL, scheduled to be held at Georgetown University March 26-29, has been canceled.
"For us it's been very sad. Every conference is important but nationals for any team is a really big deal so we're really sad about not getting to do what we've been working so hard toward," Baylis said. "For me, it's my senior year, and I'm one of our head delegates, like a team captain. (I'm) very sad about not getting to finish out my senior year but also not getting to watch the team get to do their thing."
Converse College was scheduled to host the South East Regional Model Arab League (SERMAL) this weekend, March 13-15, but it was canceled last night.
Concerns about coronavirus are also negatively impacting blood donations.
Monnie Whitson with the Blood Connection says they've seen a steady decline in collections since Friday March 6th.
"That is a 20% dip in donations. Our community could be facing a blood shortage. We've had blood drive cancellations which were projected to bring in more than 250 units; that's more than 250 additional people that need to donate blood just this week to make up for that. We always take measures so all donor centers and mobiles are clean and safe places to donate blood," Whitson said.
Whitson also reports that according to the CDC and FDA, coronavirus cannot be spread through blood transfusion.
A list of Upstate blood drives is available here.