Wear a mask. Stay six feet apart. Sanitize. “It just may save the life of someone you love,” said Dr. Jill Owens, a family medicine physician in Bradford.

She, Bradford Area School District Superintendent Katharine Pude, Bradford Mayor James McDonald, Bradford City Police Chief Mike Ward and Blaisdell Foundation Executive Director Ron Orris joined forces to send a message to the community — COVID-19 must be taken seriously to keep the community safe.

Pude said the COVID cases being seen by the district are not coming from spread within the school buildings from students or staff.

“Many of these are being traced back to innocent gatherings of friends and families where protective protocols (masks and social distancing) are not being followed because participants believe their friends and families to be virus free,” she explained. “Unfortunately, the virus doesn’t care who we love, and transmits itself quickly in these intimate groups.”

School officials are working hard to keep the schools open.

“For most of our students, in-person instruction is vital to their success as learners and so many experienced a period of regression when our schools closed early last March,” she said. “We also recognize how vitally important our services are to families as well, especially during this period of uncertainty.”

Being able to physically attend school is important for many reasons.

“Many parents rely on our schools for childcare so that they can work outside the home, meals to lessen financial burdens, socialization, special education services, sports, and mental health services,” Pude said. “Not all are offerings that can be provided in an online platform.”

This is where the community can make a difference.

“Going forward, we need to be careful and make smarter choices as individuals to make sure that the impact that this virus is having on our community is mitigated,” said McDonald. “The situation has come to a point where our school system is teetering on the edge of whether it can safely offer in-person education to our students or if it must move to remote learning.

“No one wants to be the reason that more cases pop up locally and inadvertently get our schools shut down. Myself included,” he said. “We can all do a little better and maybe it will be enough to stem the tide on the rising cases we’ve been seeing.”

Owens cautioned that this virus is very real.

“The community needs to be aware that COVID-19 is here and, as most viruses do, it will likely worsen throughout the colder winter months. While we can’t stop it, we can mitigate its devastation,” she said. “It’s crucial to wear masks, distance and sanitize, when not within your typical family unit, to limit the spread. These measures aren’t perfect, but they do reduce transmission and help protect the most vulnerable members of our community.”

Ward, who saw four healthy adult police officers off work with this virus last month, said, “I encourage the public to take COVID-19 seriously.

“The reality is that cases are on the rise in our area and it is imperative we take all measures to stop the spread of COVID-19,” the chief said. “If we don’t take action now this may affect our schools, our workplaces, and our families.

“This virus has already negatively impacted many people in our community,” Ward said, adding, “I urge everyone to recognize and follow guidelines put out by the CDC and Pennsylvania Department of Health.”

Many in the community have brushed off the seriousness of the virus, saying people don’t seem to get all that sick. Pude warned that people don’t seem to react the same way when they fall ill from it.

“We have seen individuals with very few symptoms, but we have also seen some who are terribly ill — the virus affects each individual differently,” she cautioned.

Owens said it is true that not everyone falls ill, but the risk is still very high.

“Those who are frail, elderly and immunocompromised should minimize their contact with individuals outside of their family unit as they are most at risk of getting very sick and dying from this virus,” the doctor said. “Thankfully most healthy, young, non-obese adults and children seem to have mild symptoms or even no symptoms at all. However, we still must follow these measures to protect the vulnerable among us as well as the small number of healthy people that may get very sick or die from this virus.”

She explained testing is available at Bradford Regional Medical Center by appointment, only for people with symptoms and who have been directly exposed to a positive case of COVID-19.

“Anyone who has symptoms that could potentially be COVID-19 or anyone that has been directly exposed to COVID-19 should quarantine for 14 days regardless of testing,” Owens said.

And the quarantine must be done correctly.

“To effectively quarantine, they must isolate themselves from others completely. That means not leaving their residence at all unless they are sick enough to need immediate medical attention and also not having others come to their home,” the doctor explained. “Therefore, no work, school, shopping, gatherings or other outings. Ideally they should quarantine from even household contacts, however this is often very difficult or even impossible.

“When this is not possible, the household contacts should quarantine as well as they will very likely be exposed and will expose others if they are out and about,” Owens said.

Pude added, “Regardless of its origin, once a person is infected, the people who come in close contact with the infected individual (within 6 feet for 15 minutes) must be quarantined to ensure that they, too, have not been infected. With each case that has presented in the district, we have needed to quarantine many students and many staff to try and stop the spread.”

While the state health department does contact tracing, reaching out to people who may have been exposed to someone with a positive test, Owens said people “should make every effort to notify anyone that they might have been in contact with less than 6 feet, unmasked starting 48 hours before their symptoms started or 48 hours prior to their positive test, whichever came first.

“The county and state contact tracers are contacting people diagnosed with COVID-19, however, given the increase in cases locally, they are now falling behind in that work and waiting to notify contacts will likely result in others being exposed,” the doctor explained. “The state is now recommending that people who are positive for COVID-19 do their own contact tracing and identify and notify close contacts as above. This would include notifying schools, workplaces and other locations where you might have exposed others.”

For his part, Orris reiterated what the community leaders said, noting that people need to tell their employers if they show any symptoms of the virus.

“I would just ask everyone to please wear your mask, wash your hands and when in close contact with people to stay 6 feet away.”