PRESS RELEASE (WHTC-AM/FM) — Ottawa County health officials say the latest COVID-19 surge is causing delays in contact tracing — alerting people who have been exposed to the virus.
As a consequence, health officials are asking people to be patient in waiting for the follow-up by an investigator, which may take several days, and may come in the form of a phone call. In the meantime, to best protect the health of others, these instructions must be followed by all COVID-19 cases.
- Isolate for a minimum of 10 days from the start of your symptom(s) or your positive test date, for those who are asymptomatic.
- Anyone hospitalized during their isolation period, or those who have a pre-existing medical condition that compromises your immune system, will need to isolate for a minimum of 20 days.
- Household members should self-quarantine at home immediately and continue for 14 days after the person with COVID-19 has completed isolation. If they develop even mild symptoms, they should consider getting tested for COVID-19.
- Notify close contacts that they may have been exposed and encourage them to get tested.
- Anyone awaiting test results, must stay home until the results are in. A close contact is someone who has been within six feet (about two arms’ length) of an infected person for at least 15 minutes (not necessarily consecutive minutes) in 24 hours including brief encounters with or without a face covering.
- Close contacts should quarantine—generally 14 days—since a person can be infectious before showing any symptoms.
- People can discontinue home isolation after 10 days only if their symptoms have improved. They must be fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication and not affected by the rules for a 20-day isolation period
- Ottawa County Department of Public Health may periodically contact people in quarantine via phone or text message to assess their current health status.
Isolation and quarantine mean staying home from work, school, gatherings, extracurricular activities and any other public place other than when seeking medical care.
That means separating people who have been diagnosed with a contagious disease from those who are well. This is to protect each person’s health. People who need to leave quarantine to get medical care are asked to notify the medical facility before arriving of their COVID-positive condition.
Anyone experiencing a medical or other type of emergency is asked to notify 911 and first responders of being COVID-19 so first responders can take appropriate precautions.
As of Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020, Spectrum Health’s dashboard reflected more than 328 patients admitted with COVID-19 and another nine waiting for test results. Holland Hospital’s dashboard showed 38 patients with the coronavirus.
County health officials as well as medical professionals are appealing to people who test positive for COVID-19, please take personal responsibility and not wait for a public health official make contact.
Identifying positive cases and contact tracing are proven methods to help slow the spread of an epidemic of respiratory disease, like COVID-19, county officials said. Contact tracers look for people who have been exposed to someone with COVID-19 and may also be infected with the virus. Even people infected with COVID-19 who don’t show symptoms can infect others.
County health officials said people who have been exposed to COVID-19 need to monitor themselves for symptoms, get tested and keep from exposing their friends, coworkers and families.
Two free drive-through test days are set for this week: In Ottawa County, it’s 3 p.m. through 7:30 p.m. today, Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020, at the Ottawa County Road Commission’s parking lot, 14110 Lakeshore Drive in Grand Haven. Anyone planning to get tested between 3 and 4 p.m. is asked to enter off of Rosy Mound Road via US 31, to avoid school traffic. In Allegan County, the free tests are set for 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21, 2020, at the Allegan County Transportation Building, 750 Airway Drive in Allegan.
People don’t need a doctor’s note or lab slip to get the tests — but anyone under the age of 18 needs permission from a parent or guardian. Health workers expect anyone getting a drive-through COVID-19 test to wear a mask or other face covering.
Test results typically are available in three to six days.
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