‘Don’t let your guard down’: Wichita doctor warns of COVID spread among close contacts

A Wichita doctor is advising people to be vigilant about COVID-19 pandemic precautions as coronavirus spreads through the community.

“People need to know don’t let your guard down. It’s still raging,” said Dr. Maggie Hagan, an infectious disease specialist with Infectious Disease Consultants in Wichita and the medical director of infection prevention at Ascension Via Christi.

“I think many people are trying. I think people are getting the message and trying to be safe. But I want people to understand that it’s not just when you go to Dillons that you got to wear the mask. It’s when you go anywhere to be around any people other than who lives in your household. And when you have someone live in your household, if they choose to go and be around other people without masking, then they are a potential source, even though they live in your household.”

Hagan sees the sickest COVID-19 patients — those who are hospitalized, including those in intensive care units. She asks her patients, or at least those who aren’t too sick to talk, where they think they were exposed. Many have no idea. She then asks who they live with, where they work and who they have been around.

“Most of the time, we don’t get a distinct answer of ‘Ah ha, I know I caught it from my cousin,’ ” Hagan said. “But what we do get a lot of is ‘my kids and grandkids have been coming over to visit.’”

Oftentimes, those younger family members don’t feel sick. But many get tested later because they were a close contact of a case and find out they were positive and probably spread the coronavirus to patients that did get sick.

Hagan said a common cause of coronavirus spread she has seen is adult children visiting their parents’ house or teenagers bringing it home. Other close contacts have also been a common source of exposure.

“For example, I have a couple — a husband and wife — who are both pretty sick and their adult son has recently moved home to live with them,” Hagan said. “So he is probably the source because they don’t go anywhere, but he’s been going places and then comes home.

“These are the kinds of situations that we worry about. You can’t prove always that that’s where it came from. But those are anecdotally what’s the most likely source.”

Public health recommendations such as wearing face masks, social distancing and avoiding large gatherings “have been followed pretty good by a lot of people,” Hagan said, but they sometimes let their guard down.

Many of the patients say “I wear my mask, I don’t go to Dillons without my mask or I don’t go to Home Depot without my mask,” Hagan said. “But I may go to church without my mask, or I may go over to my sister-in-law’s barbecue without my mask.

“I think we’re seeing a little bit more of the spread in those kind of events ... these home gatherings where people just stop wearing masks. Or they’re inside gatherings, like a bunch of teenagers getting together in somebody’s basement, or something like that. I think those are the things we really have to start warning people more to be cautious of.”

Some people think that because they aren’t experiencing any symptoms, it is safe to hang out with a small group of friends without masks or other precautions, she said. Maybe it is safe, but it is also possible that you or someone else will become an asymptomatic spreader, Hagan said.

“I will occasionally come upon a patient who says ‘I didn’t believe in masks and now I got sick, so now I understand I didn’t do the right thing,’ ” Hagan said. “I will say I’ve seen that on occasion. But I see a lot of people who are trying to do the right thing, but somehow there’s a breach by somebody coming into their house that’s not wearing a mask or a family member that we thought it was safe, but turns out it’s not.”

Hagan said in-person gatherings, such as graduation parties, should be held outside. And just because it’s outdoors doesn’t mean you don’t need to wear a mask, social distance or wash your hands frequently. Ignoring those recommendations is “not a good idea with the numbers we have in our area right now.”

“Be cautious of face-to-face contact or less than 6 feet distance contact with anyone other than your household members,” Hagan said. “And really stressing mask use and gatherings that are safe and that people are 6 feet apart and they’re outside and so forth.”

“You’re safer each one that you do. But the safest is to do all of them.”