Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – At Friday morning’s Covid-19 briefing County Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry Unthank reported our county has had a total of 207 cases of the virus. Of those, 24 are currently ill and there are over 300 people in quarantine as a result of contact tracing. Our number of cases per 100,000 population in the last two weeks is now at 83.
Dr. Unthank spoke about the CDC’s recent change in the wording of their guidelines regarding who should get tested and when.
“What they said was, you don’t necessarily have to get tested if you’re an asymptomatic close contact with a case unless recommended by your state and local Health Department, which, in Washington state, it is recommended by your state and local Health Department. I think the primary driver of that is the challenge the CDC faces in communicating to an entire country at the same time. And the access to testing in different parts of our country is really quite different.”
She pointed out some states have up to 2-week turnarounds in getting test results and should therefore reduce their testing to only the most critical. She says our state does not have that problem.
Dr. Unthank also addressed the question of timing for getting tested if you’re exposed to the virus by someone who is sick.
“We do think that most people who have been exposed will turn positive within about five to six days. And so when you’re thinking about when to get tested if you were just exposed yesterday, getting tested tomorrow won’t give you any meaningful information. You have to wait a few days to get tested, ideally around five, before you would get tested. And certainly if you are sick get tested right away.”
And the County Health Department’s contact tracing team will soon be getting some much-deserved help in what has lately been an exhausting job.
“We have reached out to the state for support in case investigations and contact tracing, and so the state will be providing that support starting next Monday. And so, if you get a call from someone who’s investigating a case, and they can’t pronounce ‘Sequim’, that’s why. But they are, they do work for the Department of Health. Generally, if you get a call from them on your phone, it will show up as ‘WA Health’ actually, so it’s pretty easy to know that there are legitimate source. And you will still get calls from our staff as well. We’ll all be working together on that process.”