Rural doctors prepare for inevitable virus cases

The rural south Georgia community where Dr. Robert Wagner works as an emergency room doctor had yet, as of Saturday, to confirm a single COVID-19 infection.

Yet the small 50-bed hospital is already seeing its staff and resources stressed by the outbreak that's rapidly closing in.

At Meadows Regional Medical Center in Vidalia, administrators two weeks ago limited patients and visitors to a single entrance.

Wagner and his co-workers in the ER are wearing face masks for their entire 12-hour shifts, removing them only in break rooms or during short breaks outside.

"It's added a level of stress that increases as the day goes on," he says. "Having to wear a mask for 12 hours is stressful. It's suffocating in some instances."

They change in and out of full protective gear every time they see patients considered a potential coronavirus case.

Meanwhile they're still dealing with a regular flow of patients injured in car crashes, suffering chest pains and other maladies unrelated to the outbreak.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough.

For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

The vast majority of people recover from the new virus.

According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover.

Worldwide, the new virus has infected more than 303,000 people and killed more than 12,940.

More than 91,600 people have recovered so far, mostly in China.