are beginning to open now for routine, preventative care that was postponed in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.

Michael LeVasseur, a visiting assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Drexel University in Philadelphia, says a lot of his friends and family members have been asking him that question, along with other queries about the pandemic.

But he says he's confident that physicians who are accepting patients will be cleaning their offices regularly and taking other precautions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Many of the offices and hospitals opening back up for elective and routine medical appointments in the Philadelphia area highlight other precautions they are now taking, too, such as screening patients by phone a day or two ahead of the appointment for any sign of illness, checking for fever at the hospital entrance and testing patients for COVID-19 ahead of procedures.

For most routine checkups, the decision about whether to start getting preventive care again should be easy, Palumbo says: "The people that are at highest risk of COVID or poor outcomes from COVID are also the ones that ...

Neil Fishman, an infectious disease specialist and chief medical officer at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, says that, broadly speaking, fewer patients have been coming in to medical offices with routine medical problems.

"We know COVID-19 did not cure cancer, COVID-19 did not cure heart disease," he says, "so that means that there are a lot of people who have been afraid to get routine health care either for existing conditions or for ...

"It looks like this pandemic that we're experiencing — and it would be even more devastating if we saw a recurrence of vaccine-preventable illnesses because people are avoiding health care out of fear.".

"People are anxious when they're visiting physicians or other health care providers; the anxiety is going to be ever more increased by the changes that COVID-19 are mandating now," he says.

Luke's University Health Network in Bethlehem and senior vice president of medical and academic affairs, says physical therapists at St.

Tecosky says he and his whole team have been taking patients' phone questions in recent weeks, and the patients calling have not been reluctant to come back for appointments

Early in the pandemic, he says, had to put most of his staff of six or seven people on temporary furlough because the office was only permitted to provide urgent care initially