Dr. Stephanie Silvera Comments on COVID-19 and the Holiday Season
Posted in: College News and Events
Dr. Stephanie Silvera, Professor in the Public Health Department, stated in an interview with Briana Vannozzi for NJ Spotlight News, “I understand why the governor’s hesitant to put on these widespread measures. There was a lot of pressure and pushback on them and people want to be able to keep things as open as possible so we can feel we are having as normal a life as possible. But I do think he’s doing the right thing by keeping all of those options on the table, particularly as they relate to indoor gatherings and the number of people who should be allowed to gather indoors, which we know is really a higher risk activity.”
She added, “The number of new cases per day is mirroring where we were in early to mid-May. Our hospitalization rates, which we know follow cases, are similar to where they were back in June. We have been seeing a steady increase in the number of new cases, hospitalizations, people in the ICU, since I would say late-September. So, we’re going in a direction, and this is probably the time to act. We want to act before things get out of control again.”