Quarantine fear cited in county’s testing lapse

HOT SPRINGS — With Garland County experiencing less coronavirus testing last week, county health officer Dr. Gene Shelby said he fears it is not a result of fewer cases, but fewer people getting tested because of concerns of having to undergo a 14-day quarantine.

According to a news release from the city-county covid-19 task force, for the week of Aug. 9-16 there were 174 new cases reported, compared with 171 the previous week, and 185 and 210 in preceding weeks. The daily average of new cases dropped to 24 from the previous week’s 24.4, despite days of 50 and 44 new cases on Aug. 10 and Aug. 12. The Garland County Health Unit had a lower number of test samples collected last week, at 83. Arkansas Secretary of Health Dr. Jose Romero said in the release that lower testing numbers has become a recent statewide trend.

“We’re afraid people are not wanting to be tested because if you are tested you’re expected to quarantine, and also people are afraid what the consequences will be if they have a positive test,” Shelby said. “We still need people to be tested if they’ve been in close contact with someone positive, or if they have the symptoms that go along with a covid-19 infection.”

He said it would “certainly not be in very good community spirit” for employers to give any kind of a reprimand to employees who must quarantine.

“If it’s someone who’s asymptomatic, they’re instructed to quarantine 10 days after the test, whereas someone who has symptoms they’re required to take 14 days after the onset of the symptoms,” Shelby said. “Plus they need to be fever-free without medication for 24 hours, and also improvement of their symptoms before they’re considered recovered.“

Attorney Q. Byrum Hurst said that if someone thinks they have been exposed to the virus they are “almost required” to quarantine.

“The present law does not adequately address the issue of quarantine because it’s such an unusual event, but there have been some executive orders put into place and basically what they say is if someone thinks they have been exposed then they are almost required under law to quarantine,” Hurst said. “So they can’t be fired for protecting their health and the health of others.”

The task force recently discussed whether employers should require a negative covid-19 test or merely use a “symptom-based strategy” before allowing employees who have been quarantined to return to work.