The Jefferson County Health Department is so inundated with new COVID-19 cases, it no longer will follow up with and send release letters to COVID-19 patients who are supposed to isolate for 10 days or those who have been exposed to a case and need to quarantine for 14 days, the agency announced.
The change in protocol will begin Friday (Nov. 20).
“At this time, our priority is ensuring timely notification of all new cases for investigations and contact tracing,” Health Department preparedness coordinator Jeana Vidacak said. “By eliminating the time our staff (members) dedicate to creating release letters, making follow up phone calls and sending release emails, we will gain back valuable time to help us get caught up on the backlog of cases we have.”
Even though the Health Department has hired a company named Maximus to help with contact tracing, the Health Department is unable to maintain the protocols it had in place for both contact tracing and following up on those in isolation and those in quarantine due to the increasing number of new COVID-19 cases.
“JCHD receives, on average, 200 new COVID positive cases per day and has hit peaks of over 330 cases in a day this past week,” the agency reported.
As a result, there has been a delay in investigating or following up on more than 3,000 cases, according to the Health Department.
“There are still many positive cases we have yet to interview or who refuse to identify close contacts,” Vidacak said. “Many cases prefer to communicate directly with their contacts. There are individuals who have been exposed and need to quarantine but may not have official documentation. We are relying on the community to work with each other to follow quarantine guidelines.”
The Health Department urges residents to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines that call for those who have tested positive for COVID-19 or who were exposed to a positive case and are experiencing symptoms to remain isolated for at least 10 days after the start of symptoms and until their symptoms have subsided and they are fever free for at least 24 hours.
Also, those who have been exposed to a COVID-19 patient are advised to quarantine for 14 days after the last day of exposure.
Right now, the Health Department is prioritizing contact tracing for people ages 3 to 19 and for those in long-term care facilities, as mandated by the state. That means there is no contact tracing for many people who contract the virus
COVID-19 stats
The Health Department reported 184 new COVID-19 cases today (Nov. 19), bringing the total number of cases in the county to 9,901 since the first ones were reported in March, according to the Health Department.
For the past 20 days, the county has had at least 100 new cases a day, the Health Department reported.
The county currently has 3,636 active cases, the highest number of active cases so far, the Health Department reported.
In addition, the county has had 96 COVID-19-related deaths since the pandemic started.
Of the 9,901 cases in the county, 9,100 are lab confirmed and 801 are probable cases. A case is considered probable when a person has been exposed to a positive case and is exhibiting symptoms, the Health Department reported.
As of midnight Wednesday (Nov. 18), 1,401 people were quarantined, which means they had a confirmed exposure to the virus and were in the process of completing a 14-day quarantine period.
A total of 6,146 people had been released from isolation since the start of the pandemic, according to the Health Department.
Of the county’s total coronavirus cases, 834 have been at long-term care facilities, which includes residents and staff members who live in Jefferson County.
Of the total COVID-19 deaths in the county, 55 have been from long-term care facilities.
The county has had at least 23 COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care facilities, according to the Health Department.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) defines an outbreak as one or more residents testing positive for the virus or one or more staff members who have worked within a facility in the 14 days before testing positive.
Color status
The county remains at the red level on the Health Department’s COVID-19 warning system.
Red is the highest level on the four-color system and indicates widespread and uncontrolled transmission of the virus.
Several factors are evaluated when determining the color level, including Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and White House Pandemic Task Force guidelines. However, the main indicator is the seven-day rolling average. If the county has a rolling average of 25 or more cases per day per 100,000 residents, it is moved to the red level.
From the period from Nov. 8 to Nov. 14, the seven-day rolling average of cases in the county was 95.05 per day per 100,000 people in the county, which has a population of about 225,000.
That is the highest rolling average the county has seen since the first COVID-19 cases were reported in March, according to the Health Department.
Health Department officials stress the importance of taking steps to prevent the spread of the virus, including avoiding crowds, social distancing, wearing face masks in public, good hand washing and staying home if you are sick.
Officials say they are especially worried about the spread of the virus over the upcoming holiday season, when people tend to gather with family and friends. Those kinds of gatherings, the Health Department has warned, can lead to the spread of COVID-19, which is particularly dangerous for older people and those with pre-existing health conditions.
Missouri has had 257,822 positive cases of the coronavirus and 3,507 deaths related to the disease, the DHSS reported today.
The CDC reported the U.S. has had 11,465,722 cases, and a total of 249,670 coronavirus-related deaths, as of today.
Anyone who shows coronavirus symptoms or who has questions should call the Missouri State Hotline at 877-435-8411 or the Mercy Clinical Support Line at 314-251-0500. For more information about COVID-19, visit jeffcohealth.org/coronavirus-covid19.
