Health officials respond to Gov. Whitmer’s stay-at-home order

(FOX 2) - One area doctor says looking at what happened in China may be key to figuring out when COVID-19 cases will start to decline in the U.S.

FOX 2 spoke with Dr. Trini Mathew, medical director of hospital epidemiology and infection control at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak. 

“It will help us in breaking the chain of transmission,” she said.

The shelter in place order asks people to stay home except for essential services.

“The hope is that the leveling off will occur once people have stopped coming out together and being in public and spreading it to each other,” she said.

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“Slant of the curve and that means we don't want a high peak number of cases to happen but start having cases taper off,” Dr. Mathew said.

Infectious Disease Control Doctors are zoning in on numbers to see when they can determine if they are winning the battle against COVID-19.

“As we scale up on testing we'll get more numbers of people who are positive and then we have to see how many new cases are identified every day and once that starts decreasing from the day prior, then we know we might be seeing a decrease in transmission,” the doctor said.

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The question many are asking is how long will that take? Doctors say they're looking at other countries like China for answers.

“What we're learning from other countries that have already gone through it, for example China, they put stringent measures in place and their numbers have started declining,” she said, adding that took about two months but they were ahead in taking stringent measures.

For now, doctors are advising you to get rest, eat properly and wash hands thoroughly.