WILSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WTVF) — As COVID-19 cases continue to climb in rural communities, one Middle Tennessee hospital is asking for help from the community to flatten the curve.
In a meeting with Wilson County leaders, doctors and administration from Vanderbilt Wilson County Hospital put a call out to the public to try to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
The group of Vanderbilt doctors said the increase in coronavirus cases is expected to extend through the holidays.
"We know that after Memorial Day and after the July 4th holiday we saw bumps in our patients being infected and bumps in hospitalization," said Dr. Adam Huggins, Chief Medical Officer for the hospital. "I think our concern is that particularly with the Thanksgiving Holiday, Christmas holiday, New Year's holiday coming up that we are going to see even more bumps on top of our already stressed system."
Dr. David Aronoff of Vanderbilt University Medical Center said people who are planning on traveling to family gatherings should isolate for two weeks before the holiday.
"I think this time in December, we're still going to be having a lot of disease activity. We're still not going to have a vaccine widely available," said Aronoff. "I do think we need to be prepared that this holiday season is really going to be disrupted because of the COVID-19 pandemic."
Doctors are asking people to wear masks and practice social distancing to lower the rate of infection statewide.
