Local physicians bring up masks to city council

ALAMOSA — A t Wednesday’s City Council meeting Dr. Lauren Sonderegger and Dr. Kris Steinberg of ValleyWide Health Systems raised concern to the councilors about COVID-19 transmission and offered mandatory mask-wearing as a solution.

Sonderegger spoke first during public comment, “We think that mask-wearing and having the city mandate mask-wearing in public places could be really beneficial in reducing transmission. We do know that pre-symptomatic, so before people are actually sick, and asymptomatic transmission is actually mostly how we spread it to each other, through loud talking or laughing” Sonderegger referenced a recent article published in the medical journal The Lancet, ‘Physical distancing, face masks, and eye protection to prevent person-to-person transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis’ published June 27th.

In the article, available evidence showed physical distancing was associated with a large reduction in infection. According to the article, Data also suggested that wearing face masks protects people (both health-care workers and the general public) against infection by these coronaviruses, and that eye protection could confer additional benefit.

That said, the article was sure to acknowledge that neither measure afforded complete protection from infection Sonderegger continued “If we physically distance and wear masks including multi-layer cloth masks in public we can reduce transmission of COVID-19 by 80-85%.” Steinberg expressed concern about tourism’s effect on the rate COVID-19 is spreading in the valley. “Certainly COVID-19 is increasingly spreading within the SLV and that’s going to be more dramatic as we are having folks travel through the valley”, said Steinberg.

“You’ve noticed all the motorhomes travelling through, this is the safe way to go on vacation but it may not be great for us. So we’re hoping that we can encourage everybody who’s coming through and staying and also living here to feel that they need to wear masks when they are in public.” According to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Page (CDPHE) page, Alamosa County has the fifthhighest infection rate in the state following Saguache, Eagle, Morgan and Logan Counties.

Steinberg went on to say, “We are low resource area where people have many health comorbidities and as you know people with health co-morbidities are more likely to die from COVID-19.” The Center for Disease Control defines Comorbidity as, more than one disease or condition is present in the same person at the same time. Steinberg closed her comment saying “We call on city council to make mask-wearing required in public, there are many other Colorado cities and counties requiring masks in public as does the entire state of New Mexico.”

Later in council comment, City Attorney Erich Schwiesow recommended that any such order should come from an area of expertise such as the County Public Health Department. Council will be in touch with Public Health regarding this matter, it will not be up for review at City Council’s 6/15 meeting.