Testing is geared toward at-risk patients
DBell@CalhounTimes.com
As the nation settles into the grip of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, one troublesome issue has been the lack of available test kits both locally and across the country.
As of March 30, AdventHealth Gordon had performed 57 tests, with only five returning positive results, while 33 came back negative and 19 were still pending. Those numbers to not represent the total number of tests or cases in Gordon County. As of Thursday at noon, the Georgia Department of Public Health reported 20 positive cases among Gordon County residents, including one death.
Officials at AdventHealth said they have been following the guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and the DPH in regard to who gets tested and who doesn’t.
Those guidelines are broken down as follows:
Priority 1 is for patients sick enough to require hospitalization and symptomatic heath care workers.
Priority 2 is for patients 65 and older, patients with underlying medical conditions, patients in long-term care facilities, first responders (all with symptoms).
Priority 3 is for critical infrastructure workers with symptoms, individuals with mild symptoms in communities experiencing high COVD-19 hospitalizations, and individuals who do not meet any of the above categories with symptoms.
Calhoun resident Timothy Mueller is one local patient who suspects he likely had the virus but was not tested because he’s not considered a high-risk patient.
TESTING,
Mueller said he began getting sick around March 22, and his 2-year-old and 5-month old children also became sick.
“My daughter was tested (but not for coronavirus) and the results came back as ‘two unknown viral infections,’ she was negative for flu, strep and RSV, but they didn’t look farther into it. My son was taken to the doctor two days before I did and they told my wife ‘it’s a viral infection, probably just the cold,’ but no actual test were done,” he said this week.
Mueller and his family did not visit AdventHealth Gordon, but collectively they did seek treatment at three different healthcare providers. Mueller said he ran a high fever for three days, had a cough, sneezing, running nose, headache, sore throat, body ache, difficulty breathing, shortness of breath and more.
“Very short of breath, couldn’t even get dressed without having to take a minute to catch my breath,” he said.
He went to Floyd Urgent Care after his fever broke in order to lower the chances he might spread whatever he had, but he says he was told he wouldn’t be tested for COVID-19 because he was no longer running a fever. When his symptoms persisted, he went to another provider in Cartersville, and while he was not tested, he was advised to stay out of work for at least another week.
Mueller said he understands that while tests are limited at this point in time, he thinks it is important that people who might be infected know for sure so they can take the necessary measures to avoid contact with other people.
“I know that test are limited and they are reserved almost entirely for highly at risk people, but if we aren’t testing people we cannot stop the spread,” he said. “My wife was barely affected but did show mild symptoms, I’m