The Peru Gazette

CCHD – Though we do not have the ability to respond to every comment or question on social media we have noticed some trends that we hope to be able to clarify for you, our Clinton County residents.

– Some labs are taking a particularly long time to report test results. This is not something that we have control over, but it does sometimes affect when cases are reported to you, and how soon after you see individuals move to the recovered category.
-The isolation period for an asymptomatic person (a person who is tested, but has no symptoms) begins on the date their test is collected.
-For a symptomatic person (a person with symptoms of COVID-19), isolation starts when their symptoms began.
-The word “recovered” is used to describe someone who is no longer infectious, or able to pass the virus to another person. This also means that when a person is “recovered,” isolation can be discontinued. A person who is recovered may still experience ongoing effects from the virus.
-For full details on when a person is considered “recovered,” or when isolation can be discontinued, visit https://bit.ly/32nBUXM. In general, for an individual with symptoms of COVID-19, isolation starts when their symptoms began and continues for a minimum of 10 days, and until there is no fever for at least 3 days and symptoms have improved.
-There are multiple criteria that may place an individual in the probable category. For the probable case definition used by NYS, visit https://bit.ly/3en5n7o. Some examples of criteria that may place an individual in the probable category can include an indeterminate test result or antibody test results. If a person is found to have antibodies, they may also already be considered “recovered.” If a person receives indeterminate test results, they may be retested and subsequently test positive or negative. A person in the probable category may remain in the probable category, may be moved to the confirmed case category, or may be removed from numbers if they are determined to not be a COVID-19 case, all based on epidemiologic criteria. Note that this is not a category that CCHD developed. A case definition is a set of uniform criteria used to define a disease for public health surveillance. These enable public health officials to classify and count cases consistently across reporting jurisdictions.