ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Contact tracing is a vital part of mitigating the spread of COVID-19 in our community, but it has been difficult lately with such a huge delay in test results.
Fewer than 40 people at the Department of Health have been working around the clock to connect a COVID-positive person to others they’ve been around and could have infected unawares.
It’s a proactive approach that only works with a quick turnaround on test results.
“It’s not how much lab tests we do. It’s how quickly we get the results that we get. So that we can act earlier than transmission,” Dr. Raul Pino said.
The state emergency operations center said it’s taking about six days to return test results.
Pino said anything over five days makes the results irrelevant.
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“If they were three of four days after the infection that they decided to go and get tested, we are already at day eight or ten when we get to them and transmission already happened,” Pino said.
Orange County is starting to count antigen tests in the daily totals, which provide results in about 15 minutes.
“It’s a rapid test. That’s an advantage. The disadvantage it has is that you can have some false negatives,” Pino said.
Pino said antigen tests are very accurate with positive results, but because false negatives are a concern, the county will be giving people regular tests as a backup.
When they do get positive results in a matter of minutes, officials can quickly get to work on contract tracing.
Pino said contract tracing is the best way to get ahead of the spread, instead of trying to play catch up.
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“The reality is the results should be as fast as possible. At least 24 to 48 hours so that we can have a greater impact,” Pino said.
For the people who will get both antigen tests and regular tests, Pino said the Health Department will keep the results separate so no one is counted twice in the totals.
Cox Media Group
