July 29, 2021 City Health Officer Update

Fayetteville’s City Board of Health and Dr. Marti Sharkey, the City Health Officer, announced their agreement with CDC guidance released earlier this week. 

Dr. Sharkey reminded residents and visitors that Fayetteville is in an area with high transmission of the Delta variant, which places considerable strain on healthcare systems. Because of this, she recommended both vaccinated and unvaccinated persons take the following health and safety precautions:

• Wear a mask in indoor, public settings
• Get tested if experiencing Covid-19 symptoms 
• Get tested 3-5 days after exposure to someone with suspected or confirmed COVID-19
• Isolate after receiving a positive COVID-19 test in the prior 10 days
• Isolate if experiencing Covid-19 symptoms
• Continue to follow any applicable federal or state laws, rules and regulations

Dr. Sharkey and the Board of Health also offered the following information for Fayetteville residents and visitors:

• Currently authorized vaccines in the United States are highly effective at protecting vaccinated people against symptomatic and severe COVID-19. Fully vaccinated people are less likely to become infected and, if infected, to develop symptoms of COVID-19. They are at substantially reduced risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19 compared with unvaccinated people.
  
   
• Infections in fully vaccinated people (“breakthrough” infections) happen in only a small proportion of people who are fully vaccinated, even with the Delta variant. Moreover, when these infections occur among vaccinated people, they tend to be mild. However, preliminary evidence suggests that fully vaccinated people who do become infected with the Delta variant can be infectious and can spread the virus to others.