A front-line perspective on COVID-19's spike

Dr. Sachita Shah, an emergency medicine doctor at Harborview Medical Center, has been on the COVID-19 front line since the first cases emerged in Washington state.

"In the spring, it felt like watching a tsunami come in, where we knew we were going to have more and more cases," she says. "But with the fall, (with) people going indoors more, we are expecting to see a spike and we’ve already started to see that throughout much of the country."

Dr. Shah discusses protocol changes made in the emergency department to improve the outcomes of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 and to keep uninfected patients safe. She urges the community to maintain safeguards of wearing face masks, physical distancing, and hand hygiene.