Turnaround time longer for COVID-19 test results

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT S TAFF WRITER

After weeks of speculation, Gov. Roy Cooper announced July 14 that North Carolina would again remain in Phase 2 of his three-phase reopening plan and that schools would reopen as scheduled on Aug. 17, albeit with important caveats.

“We know schools will look a lot different this year,” Cooper said. “They have to, to be safe and effective.”

Three separate school plans had been floated over the past few weeks — Plan A, a fully in-person arrangement; Plan B, a hybrid version of Plan A and Plan C; and Plan C, fully remote learning.

The state’s “baseline” plan, according to Cooper, will be Plan B. That includes fewer children in the classrooms and a remote option for any student who wants it.

State-provided reusable face coverings for every student, staff and teacher will be mandatory, and frequent COVID screenings, along with aggressive sanitation practices, will also be implemented.

Local school districts, however, may also choose to follow Plan C. Cooper reserved the right to mandate Plan C should caseloads worsen. N EWS EDITOR oratories across the state, the time taken to get results continues to increase.

Dr. Mark Jaben, medical director for the Haywood County Health Department, said turnaround time on testing was down to a couple of days a couple of weeks ago, but now test results are taking up to eight business days to return. That increased wait time creates challenges for the health department as well as local residents who have to isolate while awaiting their results.

“Once you get tested, a longer time for results means a longer time in quarantine. This could impact when it’s safe for you to go back to work. A longer time for results complicates the effectiveness of contact tracing,” he said. “An additional four to six day lag before we know about a positive result means close contacts to that person remain out and about possibly exposing even more people.”

Jaben asked people to be proactive and let their close contacts know as soon as they’ve been tested and as soon as they get their test results. The health department will still reach out to people who’ve come into contact with a positive case but it may take another week before that happens.

Jaben also warned against a COVID-19

Senate Republicans declined to consider a bill July 7 giving flexibility to local school boards on how to conduct the first week of school, so for at least the first five days, students must attend in person.

Cooper had initially closed schools for two weeks on March 14. At that time, North

Carolina had seen only 29 cases, and the seven-day rolling average of new cases was about seven per day.

At the time of Cooper’s July 14 announcement, the state had seen almost 90,000 cases as well as more than 1,500 deaths and a seven-day rolling average of more than 1,800 cases per day.

Cooper’s announcement came as The Smoky Mountain News was going to print; look for more on this developing story in the next issue of SMN, on newsstands and

BY JESSI STONE

As more tests for COVID-19 pour into lab

online on Wednesday, July 22. test product that is producing false positives. The report from the state stated that a testing product from a company called BD was shown to produce 3 percent false positives.

“That means that out of 100 positive results, three could be wrong,” Jaben said.

The Haywood County Health Department checked with the labs performing testing analysis for them and was reassured that the labs don’t use the BD product. For those getting tested, Jaben recommended asking the provider what test product was being used.

As of press time, Haywood County had reported a total of 138 cases, 94 of which were considered recovered. The county also reported that there were two hospitalizations at Haywood Regional Medical Center and two at Mission Hospital. The county hasn’t had any reported COVID-19 related deaths.

Jackson County has had a total of 220 positive COVID-19 cases, and 74 of those are still active and in isolation. The county has only one reported COVID-related death.

As of July 13, Macon County had a total of 333 positive cases — 117 are still active, 218 are recovered, 448 tests are pending and there’s been one death. Macon County has identified three clusters of cases throughout the county, the latest one being at least nine positive cases found among employees at Norton Creek Farms.

Swain County has had 70 positive cases, 189 tests pending result and one death. The county health director has said she’s not comfortable reporting cases as “recovered” because the state hasn’t offered a concrete definition of what that means.