By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Reno County Health Department clarified what it plans to do after new directives from the federal and state level regarding contact tracing were publicized earlier this week.
"In the past when someone had a positive COVID-19 result, we would contact that person and then that disease investigator would walk them through and help them understand, maybe 48 hours prior to that positive diagnosis, who they were around and where they were at. Then, they would give a listing of those individuals and contact information, then we would reach out to them also and notify them that they were a close contact of an individual that had tested positive for COVID-19. With the overwhelming amount of cases that we're having right now, we're having to change that process to notifying those that are positive for COVID-19 only."
The investigator will still try in that call to go over who people might have exposed, but then, contacting those people will be the responsibility of the person who has tested positive.
"We're needing some help and assistance," Nichols said. "That's a direction that KDHE asked us and we supported. Of course, it came from CDC. It came from CDC, then to KDHE like it normally does and then to your local health department."
As for how local school districts will handle contact tracing among their students, that's a question parents need to ask those districts individually.
"We want to continue and remind everybody like we've always done, please get vaccinated and boosted," Nichols said. "Wear a mask. If you're ill, get tested. Stay home if you're exposed. Stay home if you're sick. Also, social distance and practice good hand hygiene."
The case count as of Wednesday morning was at 1,229. Two hundred one people in Reno County have had their deaths attributed to a COVID-19 infection since the beginning of the pandemic.