Summit County announced the first known case of community spread of COVID-19. Officials are on high alert to identify and isolate people known to have the coronavirus. Testing for the virus is handled at the state level, not by the county so if symptoms appear, contacting a health care provider over the phone is the recommended course of action.
Summit County Health Department Director Rich Bullough says the criteria for testing a suspected COVID-19 case is evaluated through a tele-med hot line that involves a series of steps.
We are not part of the triage process that implements the algorithm determining who gets tested and who doesn't. At this point in time individuals who have symptoms are first of all going through the medical process and they’re eliminating the flu and they're doing some other things and, in many cases, they’re self-isolating without testing. But we're not part of that decision-making process.”
Lt. Governor Spencer Cox, in a news briefing Friday, said the state is hoping to be able to conduct 1000 tests per day in the coming weeks.
As of Thursday, the Utah Public Health Laboratory has tested 136 people. The CDC tested 18 Utah residents. Cox says private laboratories like ARUP have certified their tests and were able to test 100 individuals last Wednesday and will soon be able to handle up to 500 people a day. IHC is also working to certify their tests and officials believe they’ll ramp up quickly.
Bullough says it is critical that if a patient is not going to use tele-medicine, that they must call ahead.
"And if an individual for some reason doesn’t access the telemedical system, they are strongly advised, and this is critical, to call forward if they intend to present to one of the many clinics across the state or in Summit County. They need to call that clinic ahead of time and let them know they’re coming. That's also true with the emergency department at Intermountain Hospital in Park City and they will at that point in time do a screening using telemedicine.”
All suspected cases with symptoms that include fever, cough and difficulty breathing are first screened for flu. According to the Utah Department of Health website, influenza activity is high and currently widespread in Utah. Influenza A H1N1 was the most common virus detected this past week. There have been over 1000 hospitalizations caused by flu so far this season. The CDC recommends flu vaccine for everyone especially those who are older and immune compromised. And it is not too late to get the vaccine according to the UDOH website. Bullough says the CDC announced it is going to be the biggest flu season in the last decade.
"I've had employees out with the flu this year. So yeah it is going around and that is absolutely in our community. And the reason they test for the flu when their diagnosing COVID or going down that path is they want to eliminate and make sure it isn't just the flu.”
Alternatively, the science behind the COVID-19 virus is an unknown. Bullough says coronavirus carriers can infect others before symptoms appear. He says research is limited and it’s uncertain how long the virus can linger on surfaces.
“Yeah, it’s been discussed a lot. You know initially it was thought somewhere in the ballpark of nine days on hard surfaces under good conditions, room temperature conditions. From what I've seen that interval appears to be shorter than that and recently they've been saying that it may be not much more than a day. But those numbers are moving, and I would hesitate to say that the science is actually there yet. They’re still learning about this virus.”
Go to coronavirus.utah.govor call the information line at 800-456-7707
