‘Sheer volume’ has slowed health-department calls to those with COVID

The Enterprise — Melissa Hale-Spencer
“You have to have a picture of the rapid-antigen test because that’s critical,” said Mary Rozak, spokeswoman for the Albany County Executive’s Office.

ALBANY COUNTY — The wave of new COVID-19 cases — presumably heightened by the highly contagious Omicron variant — has not crested for Albany County or the nation.

The governor’s office on Monday reported the Omicron variant comprised 90 percent of uploaded sequences from New York State between Dec. 20 and Jan. 1.

While Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy said at a press conference on Friday that the health department would not be able to call everyone to quarantine or isolate, his spokeswoman, Mary Rozak, told The Enterprise on Monday that those calls will be made — it’s just a matter of time.

“We are still doing contact tracing ... It’s the sheer volume that’s buried us. It’s not like we put our hands up and said, ‘We’re not doing this anymore.’ That’s not the case at all,” said Rozak.

The way the state set up the databases is problematic, Rozak said. “All that we essentially get, when we find out about positives, is a name, a date of birth, and a phone number.”

So, she said, there is no way to quickly sift through to find out who may be at high risk to call them first.

The state has told the county’s health commissioner, Elizabeth Whalen, that it may set up a portal to make it easier “but who knows if it will happen fast enough,” said Rozak.

Right now the county is going through the cases as they come in, she said, creating a “heavy, heavy workload” so it’s taking longer to get to people.

Residents who test positive are encouraged not to wait for a call from the health department to start isolating; rather, they should go to the county’s website to follow the guidance for isolating. Similarly, those who have been exposed to the virus can consult the website for quarantine protocols.

Currently the calls to those who test positive are being handled by county health department workers and staff from other county departments who are experienced with the process.

 

Waiting for state guidance

People may be confused, Rozak said, because of guidance sent out by the state’s health department on essential workers who have tested positive returning to work after five days instead of 10.

Rozak shared the Dec. 24 guidance with The Enterprise, which states, in part: “In limited circumstances where there is a critical staffing shortage, employers may allow a person to return to work after day 5 of their isolation period” is they are fully vaccinated, asymptomatic, haven’t had a fever for 72 hours,  and can wear a well-fitting  mask like a KN95.

The guidance includes a list of essential workers.

A company has to determine who is an essential worker, said Rozak, positing that a worker could become essential because of staff shortages. “Some of it is up to the judgement of employers,” she said, noting she has fielded many questions about that.

On Dec. 27, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidance on isolation and quarantine periods. 

“Given what we currently know about COVID-19 and the Omicron variant, CDC is shortening the recommended time for isolation from 10 days for people with COVID-19 to 5 days, if asymptomatic, followed by 5 days of wearing a mask when around others,” says the new guidance.

Most transmission occurs early in the course of illness, generally in the day or two prior to onset of symptoms and then two to three days after, the CDC says.

The CDC also changed the quarantine period for people exposed to COVID-19.

People who are vaccinated and have a booster shot — six months after the second shot of Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech and two months after the single-shot Johnson & Johnson — do not need to quarantine after being exposed, but should wear a mask for 10 days after the exposure.

For people who are unvaccinated or are more than six months out from their second messenger RNA dose or more than two months after the J&J vaccine and not yet boosted, the CDC now recommends quarantine for five days days followed by strict mask use for an additional five days.

“Alternatively, if a 5-day quarantine is not feasible, it is imperative that an exposed person wear a well-fitting mask at all times when around others for 10 days after exposure,” the guidance says.

 Anyone who has been exposed to the virus should get a COVID test the fifth day after exposure, the CDC says. If symptoms occur, the exposed person should immediately quarantine until a negative test confirms symptoms are not attributable to COVID-19.

The 10-day period has not changed statewide, including for schools, because New York has not issued new guidelines. “We follow the state guidelines,” said Rozak.

“Dr. Whalen believes there will be an update from New York State this week. She will then update the school districts,” said Rozak.

 

Schools

Governor Kathy Hochul’s plan was to have schools reopen for in-person instruction on Jan. 3 with students who may have been exposed to COVID-19 able to take home rapid antigen tests; if the test is negative and the student is asymptomatic, he or she can return to school rather than quarantining.

Locally, the Capital Region Board of Cooperative Educational Services is to distribute the rapid antigen tests. “Please note that any positive test results from an at-home test must be reported to the local health department and to your school nurse,” said local school notices, including at Guilderland and Berne-Knox-Westerlo, both in the Capital Region BOCES.

Rozak was emphatic on Monday, saying that the only way anyone should inform the county health department of a positive test result is through the county’s website, which has a link for that purpose.

“No calling,” she said. “Because right now they’re making all the calls outbound. It’s just impossible for someone to call in.”

Also important, she said, is: “You have to have a picture of the rapid-antigen test because that’s critical.”

So far, Rozak said on Monday morning, 800 positive tests have been reported through the portal, which was set up on Friday. “It continues to grow,” she said.

 

Testing sites

On Monday, Hochul announced 10 testing sites to open soon at universities, including the University at Albany. Exact hours and locations are to be announced for the community testing sites.

This is in addition to the testing site, announced Friday, that will open Jan. 4 at Crossgates Mall in Guilderland at the site of the former Ruby Tuesday restaurant.

 

Newest numbers

Hochul, speaking at a state-run vaccination site in Rochester on Monday, called the latest case numbers “rather shocking” but stressed, “It is not the Delta variant. People are testing positive at a much higher rate, but the severity of the illness is far less than we’ve seen before.”

Hochul also called “troubling” the rising trend in hospitalizations. The hospitalizations in Albany County have been higher this week than at any other time since the pandemic started in the spring of 2020.

The infection rate statewide as a seven-day average is now at 21.49 percent; the Capital Region rate is 16.12 percent.

The World Health Organization in 2020 set a 5-percent infection rate as the trigger for a shutdown.

Statewide, as a seven-day average, there are 335.05 cases per 100,000 in population; Albany County’s rate is 142.8 per 100,000.

McCoy, in his daily COVID release on Monday morning, announced 429 new COVID-19 cases with 3,529 active cases in the county. 

The number of county residents under quarantine increased to 4,051 from 4,001. 

There were 10 new hospitalizations since Sunday, and there are now 85 county residents currently hospitalized with the coronavirus – a net increase of one. Ten of those hospital patients are in intensive-care units.

The governor’s office reported two Albany County deaths in its Monday release.

“The number of county residents currently hospitalized with COVID continues on a concerning upward trend for the fifth day now,” said McCoy in his release. “We will likely see an additional surge of new infections because of New Year’s celebrations, which will likely lead to even more hospitalizations, and we need to be sure our hospitals can handle the influx of patients.

“I’m urging everyone to continue being cautious over the next few weeks so we can get a handle on this situation.Please wear a mask in public, get vaccinated, get the booster, and get tested and stay home if you’re feeling under the weather.”

So far, 71.7 percent of Albany County residents have been fully vaccinated.

Those who are hospitalized and those who die are predominantly unvaccinated.

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