By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Reno County Health Department Director Nick Baldetti told county commissioners at their meeting Tuesday that the testing numbers he is giving them are accurate.
"There seems to be an assumption that individuals are tested over and over and over again, if they test positive, they continue to be tested until they are negative," Baldetti said. "That simply isn't the case. If an individual is tested and they test positive, they are quarantined for 14 days post-symptoms. If they present no symptoms but they test positive, then they simply quarantine for 14 days. If they are sick and they go get tested and they test positive, that 14 day quarantine doesn't start until their symptoms pass. They are still quarantined when they have symptoms, but the 14 day clock, so to speak doesn't start until they no longer have symptoms."
There aren't generally multiple tests used on an individual who tests negative, either.
"If somebody tests negative, we don't test them again unless they present some sort of symptoms or they get put into a situation where they have a high risk of exposure and they have a job that has a high risk of spread," Baldetti said.
With that said, the active cases number is climbing.
"The activity that we're seeing, at least what we have seen over the weekend and into yesterday, we're on a steady incline," Baldetti said. "The last seven days, I'm just going to give you the active cases. On June 30, we had six active cases, on the first of July we had nine. the second, we had 16, the third, we had 17, the fourth, we had 21, the fifth we had 26 and the sixth, we had 27. We had cases get deemed recovered in there, as well."
That's about five to six new positive cases a day over the last four days. Also, five in the hospital at once is equal to the peak usage thus far, according to Baldetti.