‘Wear a mask’: Local hospital launches campaign to curb virus spread

MORGANTON, N.C. — Carolinas Healthcare Blue Ridge in Morganton is asking people to wear a mask this Thanksgiving to keep the hospital from being overwhelmed with patients.

The hospital launched a social media campaign called “Love your friends and neighbors. Wear a mask.”

Channel 9 reporter Dave Faherty spoke with Dr. Ben Field, who has already treated dozens of patients with COVID-19, and watched as Field put on the PPE he wears in the COVID area.

There are currently more than 700 positive virus cases in Burke County, with 349 people hospitalized. Sixteen of them are at Carolinas Healthcare System Blue Ridge.

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Field said his patients with the virus are experiencing very high fevers, shortness of breath, fatigue and abdominal pain.

“Going into the holidays season, I think we need to recognize that we’re going into winter in the middle of a pandemic and we’re hitting records daily with the number of new cases. I think it needs to be taken very seriously by the community at large,” he said.

Field said the hospital rotates doctors in the COVID unit every couple of weeks.

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