Confusion about the difference in quarantine and isolation orders prompted the Sweetwater County District Board of Health to help residents understand the difference and importance of both orders, as well as encouraging residents to wear masks to help limit the coronavirus’ spread.
According to Jason Mower, a spokesperson for the board, Sweetwater County has had 78 confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection since the start of the pandemic. Throughout June, number of confirmed infections have increased on a weekly basis throughout the month, with 28 cases confirmed last week and four more on Monday. Mower said a number of cases are related to people who have previously tested positive for the disease, but a few have turned up where healthcare workers are unsure of where the exposure occurred.
“It’s out there in the community. That shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody,” he said.
Kim Lionberger, director of public health, said the quarantine and isolation orders are the only tools the board of health has to ensure the disease doesn’t quickly spread through the community and overrun the hospital with sick people.
“We don’t have a vaccine, we don’t have any other therapies that would help with this illness and so that is the only thing we can do to mitigate that spread,” she said.
Lionberger said isolation orders are given to people who test positive for COVID-19 or are probable cases. A probable case is someone who hasn’t been tested for infection, but has had exposure to someone who has tested positive and shows symptoms of the illness.
People who receive quarantine orders are people identified as close contacts of either probable cases or people who have tested positive. Quarantines are issued 14 days from the last known contact with a positive or probable case. Lionberger said those under quarantine and don’t show symptoms of the illness are recommended to wait at least five days from the last contact to be tested.
Those with symptoms are recommended for immediate testing. Once a quarantine order is issued and someone tests negative for the disease, Lionberger said the duration of the order is still in effect. The incubation period for COVID-19 is anywhere between 2 and 14 days. Someone who tests negative for the disease a few days after exposure may develop symptoms and test positive later within that period.
“Even if you test negative, you do not come out of quarantine until that quarantine order is finished,” Lionberger said.
With masks, Mower recognizes how politicized the issue of wearing a mask has become in some areas of the United States, saying the board is trying to avoid it becoming a political issue locally.
“Please recognize your actions and decisions, they have the power to impact others,” he said.
Lionberger said one of the biggest missteps made during the early days of the pandemic was the announcement that a face mask would not protect someone from contracting the disease. A face mask has been shown to curb the spread of the disease from people wearing them. Masks collect the droplets exhaled from a person as they speak and breathe, preventing them from being spread to other people in the vicinity. Those droplets are the primary means for the coronavirus to spread and if someone wearing a mask is infected and doesn’t show symptoms, they’re severely limiting the viral exposure to others.
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