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EMBED >More News Videos Santa Clara County, the area hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic in the region, was the first to issue a shelter-in-place order. Now their leading expert is offering her thoughts on the battle against COVID-19. Here's what she had to say.

Q&A with Dr. Cody

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SANTA CLARA COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) -- Santa Clara County Public Health Director Dr. Sara Cody was the first to sound the alarm about the outbreak of novel coronavirus . She's seen by some as the Dr. Fauci of the Bay Area.Now, as the Bay Area now enters it's fourth week sheltering in place, Dr. Cody has a grim prediction: That a return to normal life might be farther away than any of us hoped or expected."We're going to be at this for a very, very long time," she told ABC7 News anchor Liz Kreutz in a one-on-one interview Monday. "I just have to keep reminding myself that this is a marathon and we have to keep ourselves nourished somehow, and we have to keep our energy good."Dr. Cody was part of the team of public health officials to enact the Bay Area's shelter-in-place order; the first region in the country to do so."Taking action early gives us an advantage, gave us an advantage in slowing things down," she said. "It has, of course, caused enormous social and economic disruption. But had we taken action later, we would still be sheltering in place, we would still be experiencing incredible economic and social disruption and we'd be having an incredible strain on our healthcare system as well."When asked why officials haven't released which areas are hardest hit, she says the virus is widespread in the county. It's everywhere.Dr. Cody believes taking early action has made a difference."While we're not out of the woods, I am cautiously optimistic that we've put our hospitals and healthcare partners in a better position to manage the infections that we expect will be continuing to be coming," she said. "What I will say, is taking action early gives us an advantage, gave us an advantage, in slowing things down."Still, Dr. Cody says a surge in cases is coming, and that since a vaccine is still a long ways off, at some point everyone is likely to be infected with COVID-19."Yes, probably at some point," Dr. Cody replied when asked if she believes everyone will be infected. "What our shelter-in-place order does, though, is slow things down, so we spread the cases out over a long period of time, and so that we spread the number of people who are severely ill and require hospitalization over a long period of time as well."Dr. Cody declined to give a timeline for when she anticipates life returning to normal, saying this is the "new normal" for the foreseeable future. She stopped short of saying school won't return in the Fall."Mostly, what I'm trying to do in my own home is try to get my kids used to online learning, they're not a big fan of it, but that's the reality at the moment," Dr. Cody said when asked what she tells her own children about the possibility going back to school in the Fall. "I just want to go back to our new normal, and that is that everything is uncertain."