Hi
with you about how the Health Department investigates
COVID-19 cases and what we do to limit spread in the
community. I'm at the Fairfax County Government Center and
just down the hall from where I am right now, our COVID-19
Contact Investigation Call Center is hard at work. The
call center has a team of nurses and epidemiologists who
are reaching out to each person who has a positive test
for COVID-19, the novel coronavirus. Once they contact
the person who is infected, they provide information on
the steps to take to avoid infecting others. Advice
includes staying home and avoiding contact with others
in the household, and having a separate bedroom and bathroom
if possible. Call center staff also provide instructions on
how to identify others who they had been in contact with
and how to talk with them about quarantine. What
quarantine means is that those exposed people also should
stay home and away from others for a 14-day period, the time
during which they might become ill. This is important. By
staying home and away from others, they can't spread
disease if they have been infected. This is what we do
if we know someone was infected by COVID-19 based on
having a positive test. But what if they have an illness
that looks like COVID-19 but never got tested? What happens
then? That's where we need your support. We all know the
problems with getting coronavirus tests. Test kits
may not be available. Doctors may decide that a test isn't
needed. Or perhaps someone doesn't have a doctor at all.
In all these cases, someone may have COVID-19 infection
and not get a positive test. In fact, the University of
Virginia estimates that for each person who tests
positive, there are six others who have COVID-19 and are not
tested but who still have the disease. So, if our call
center reaches everyone who has a positive test, what
happens to these other 6 out of 7 people who are infected
but not tested? We are asking those who have been diagnosed
with COVID-19 by their doctor, whether or not they have had a
test and, people who haven't seen a doctor but are sick
with fever, chills, muscle aches, cough or sore throat to
do the following. First, stay at home for at least 7 days and
stay away from others at home as much as possible. Second,
identify your contacts. This is everyone who was within six
feet of you for 10 or more minutes while you were sick or
during the two days before your illness began. Next,
reach out to all of these people. Tell them you are sick
with symptoms of COVID-19 and that they may have been
exposed. Then ask them to self-quarantine; that is, to
stay home for 14 days and avoid close contact with
others. If they get COVID-19 symptoms during that 14-day
period, they should talk to their close contacts and then
have the same conversation. Every household in the Fairfax
Health District was mailed a toolkit with these details.
You can also find it online at www (dot) Fairfax county (dot)
gov (slash) Covid 19. Contact tracing is a cornerstone of
public health work to stop the spread of many infectious
diseases, such as measles, TB, and meningitis. It works. By
taking the simple steps of isolating yourself if you
develop coronavirus-like illness, and talking to your
contacts about quarantine, you can amplify the work of the
Health Department and have an important impact on
controlling disease in our community. We all long to get
back to normal life and I can't speculate on when that
will happen. But what I can tell you with certainty is
that if we all stay persistent we can and will get this
disease under control. We do have the power to slow or stop
the spread of COVID-19 if we do the following 3 things:
First, if you are sick, isolate yourself and talk with
your close contacts and ask them to quarantine themselves.
Second, stay home, if possible, and if you do go
out, make sure you socially distance and consider using a
face covering. And third, wash your hands frequently and
don't touch your eyes, your nose or your mouth which could
allow the infection to get into your body. On behalf of
all of everyone in the Fairfax Health District's Contact
Investigation Call Center as well as our entire Health Department,
thank you for supporting the fight against COVID-19. Be
well and stay safe.