No matter how much citizens may hate wearing them, wearing facial coverings while within 6 feet of anyone outside of the household is still being stressed by health officials in the effort to stop the spread of coronavirus.

Dr. Nauman Qureshi of Athens-Limestone Hospital said wearing masks is the most important thing right now in combating COVID-19. Qureshi gave an update on coronavirus and the current number of related patients at ALH during a press conference hosted Thursday at Athens City Hall.

“If I had to say one thing — mask, mask, mask,” Qureshi said. “If you have to eat while other people are around, take the mask off, gobble it down and then put the mask on again.”

Athens Mayor Ronnie Marks said he wanted to put together the press conference in order to give families an update on COVID-19 before the upcoming holiday season.

“The same (rules) apply if families want to get together on Thanksgiving,” Qureshi said. “Eat the turkey, and then put the mask on. As much as possible, try to engage in outdoor activities. If the weather is good, try to stay outdoors as much as possible. The risk of spreading (coronavirus) is much less in an outdoor setting.”

Marks said he has met people on the street who have told him they are simply not going to wear facial coverings even though the coverings have been shown to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

“Everybody seems to be getting into the ‘COVID fatigue,’ as they call it,” said Limestone County Commission Chairman Collin Daly. “It is still out there, and it is still real. We have the holiday season coming up, and everybody is wanting to be more involved. I encourage everybody to keep social distancing and keep washing your hands.”

Qureshi said it can be fatiguing when people are not able to keep up their usual routines, but he said many activities can still be done while wearing masks.

“In fact, I think they should be done,” he said. “People should go out and exercise and walk — try to enjoy life as much as possible while wearing masks. That’s my take on it.”

Qureshi also reminded residents to maintain 6 feet of distance between non-household members.

“That is the area of safety,” he said. “Just (Wednesday), I think, the CDC made some modifications to the 15-minutes of exposure rule, saying now it does not have to be one span. It can be cumulative exposure.”

Qureshi likened fighting the spread of coronavirus to a mouse trying to find its way through a maze.

“The mouse goes through the maze, makes some mistakes, goes in the wrong direction and reverses and comes back, then finally finds his way,” he said. “That’s what the world and United States medical community has done. It has been a trial-and-error process, but we have made a lot of progress.”

He said since the beginning of the pandemic, scientists have identified the genome of the virus and how it is transmitted. He added work on a potential vaccine has been “stop and go, but we should eventually get there.”

Patient count

During the press conference, Qureshi gave updated figures on the number of coronavirus-related patients at ALH. As of Thursday, there were 13 positive patients at the hospital, and four of them are in the intensive care unit, he said.

While the number of patients with COVID-19 continues to climb, Qureshi did say the percentage of “seriously ill” patients has declined somewhat.

“Hospitalization rate is not down,” he said. “Despite the surge in the number of patients, we are seeing somewhat of a decrease in the number of sick patients in the hospital. By sick patients, I mean people who need oxygen or are having organ failure. That seems to be, from a percentage basis, a little less, which is fortunate.”