The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Picente urges selfreporting of at-home
Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente is urging residents to self-report positive results to the county health department.
UTICA, N.Y. » With the use of COVID-19 home test kits on the rise, Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente is urging residents to selfreport positive results to the county health department so that cases can be properly contact traced.
“COVID-19 home test kits are now readily available, convenient, and affordable, and with school being back in session, more and more county residents are utilizing them,” Picente said. “While we are glad that people are taking action to ensure the health and safety of our community, it is resulting in many positive test results going unreported.” Getting these results to the health department is important to ensure that the proper measures are in place to reduce COVID’S ability to spread, he said.
Oneida County is requesting that any resident who tests positive with a COVID-19 home test kit reports the positive test result immediately by calling (315) 7985431. Reporting a positive result to the county health department will ensure proper support and documentation for work and school absences and will enable the health department to perform case investigation, contact tracing, and notification to others who have been exposed. Case investigation and contact tracing require training and specialized skills and should be handled by health officials, not individuals, schools, or workplaces.
Generally, isolation periods are for 10 days, but are dependent on many factors. Contact tracers will investigate the positive person’s case, determine the infectious period, and release the person when they are no longer infectious. If cases are not reported and positive people are making decisions on their own, the potential for continued COVID-19 spread is high, officials say.
“With communicable diseases, one of the best defenses is contact tracing,” said Daniel Gilmore, Oneida County Director of Health. “With cases not being reported, contact tracing is incomplete. The Oneida County Health Department is making every effort to stay on top of COVID-19 spread in this community, and unreported home test kits are making this more difficult. Cooperation on this matter is vital.”
The New York State Paid Family Leave Law may provide compensation for leave from work related to COVID-19. Documentation from health departments is often required to support a request for paid family leave. Similarly, schools will request health department documentation for staff or students who are positive for or exposed to COVID-19. The county health department can only provide documentation for positive test results that are properly reported and traced, which is not typically done after the fact.
Oneida County is in the process of developing an online self-reporting system for positive home test kit results. Until then, officials are directing all at-home positive test results to be reported to the county health department at (315) 798-5431. Positive at-home results should also be reported to a personal physician.