@oldfort VA. And my older S signed up in 3 different places to be a contact tracer in June and was never called.
My sister in GA checked out the possibility of being a contract tracer and was told she needed to be bilingual and have education/relevant experience in epidemiology.
No headache today. We are low on a couple of groceries, so I guess I’ll check in to delivery for the first time.
I haven’t been on this thread in awhile, but I had one cousin die last month and another test positive last week, so, yeah, it feels close to me. The male cousin from my mother’s side who died lives in small-town Texas, and the female cousin from my dad’s side who tested positive lives in another small town in Texas, but she works in the town where the other cousin lives. Weird. Until this past month, the numbers in these towns was really low. We are Hispanic so I do wonder about how it’s affecting minority communities.
Tonight, we learn what is happening with dh’s teaching job. We think the school board will delay opening until after Labor Day and do three-four weeks of all online, then a few more weeks of online for those who want it. I am convinced that by then it will be such a cluster that he won’t have to go back until next semester.
Our governor (Ohio) tested positive today as he arrived on the tarmac to meet Trump in Cleveland. Had the test right there and appeared to have a result in like minutes.
How is that available to some and not to others? You get what I’m saying here.
I got my result in 15 minutes. As far as I know, it’s only available at private labs, at a pretty high cost.
Rapid tests are available at some clinics here in MD - both of my sons had them done. Our insurance covered it. It took 20 minutes for them to get their results. They weren’t PCR tests but the clinic did also take swabs for the PCR test which were sent to a private clinic. Those results took about 6 days.
I have awful insurance, yet extremely expensive. Figures.
Well, our Governor I spoke of, Governor DeWine here in Ohio - who tested positive this afternoon with that rapid test… has now tested negative on a 2nd test. His wife tested negative also. They will retest Saturday. Apparently the antigen tests test fast, but aren’t always accurate?
This particular antigen test had a high false positive rate reported a couple of months ago: https://www.medtechdive.com/news/fda-warns-of-false-positives-with-bd-coronavirus-diagnostic/581115/
(I don’t know if that has changed since then)
If there is a faster/easier test that is used for preliminary screening, than a false positive is better than a false negative, but obviously should always be followed up with a more accurate test.
Matt Stanford, Lions quarterback, had a similar experience with a false positive,
A 3% false positive for a rapid test is fine. Of course, as @calmom says it should be followed up with a more accurate test.
Just had word that the family friend who is also the home healthcare aide in my brother’s house has it. My brothers household includes him, age 65, his wife, age 68 cancer survivor, my mother age 95, and until Monday his MIL, who was 96 when she died at home, his grandson, his SO and their 1 year old. Also my niece and her family just visited there Sunday and in all the pics not a mask to be seen. I am now beside myself with worry.
Only three people I know personally have tested positive for Covid–all in the last month: my 24 yo nephew, my cousin’s 20 yo. daughter, and my cousin–50yo dad of the 20 yo.
The young people had mild flu-like symptoms. The 50yo thought he was experiencing some allergy symptoms, but got tested because his daughter had recently had Covid. (They all live in other states–our family had no contact with them.) Another nephew, age 30, who lives/works in the NYC area, thinks he had it back it March. He had more serious flu-like symptoms, body-aches/fever. Tests weren’t readily available then, and he thought best to stay home unless he needed hospital care, which he didn’t.
H is a geriatrician. Works outpatient only. Only one confirmed positive patient has come through his office, but that patient was seen by another practitioner/staff member, who then had to quarantine. (They did not get sick.)
Agree that a lot of (most?) people are having mental health issues–anxiety, depression, etc., feelings of isolation, disorientation, disruption of routines, absence of expected rituals (religious services/fellowship, funerals, weddings, graduations, reunions, even sports seasons…), feeling out of control and facing the unknown. A million little losses for most people, and some huge losses (unemployment, illness/death of loved ones) for many.
Funny the little things I’ve noticed–like the disproportionate number of wine bottles in our local glass recycling dumpster. My D works for her university foundation, calling past donors. She has recently seen more older alumni keeping her on the phone a long time–because they are lonely and just want to talk to someone.
I know two people who have died of COVID, one man in his early 60s with no obvious preexisting conditions and one frail man in his 80s. One woman I know in her 50s had it and recovered without going to a hospital.
I don’t know anyone who is currently I’ll.
Living near a state border, I never expected that I’d have to worry about differing state quarantine rules.
I’m hearing of more and more “friends of friends” who are testing positive, but our niece is the only person I know personally who contracted the virus and she is fine now.
@Nrdsb4 - what was your result?
I took the saliva test today, but results don’t come for 2-4 days.
So it was a drive up deal. I was met by a man wearing an N95 only, standing about 15 feet from my car. He asked me to keep my mask on at all times that my window was rolled down. He also asked me to show my email with my identification number on it. Then he assigned me a lane. I drove up to the little tent, where a man at a laptop and a woman sitting next to him were. He asked me to give him my ID number, then he found me on his computer and said that the woman would hand me the testing materials. The person who gave me the bag sat at a table wearing mask/face shield/gown and handed it to me via a long instrument that had pinchers that hold the bag and release it into your hands. Basically you roll up your window, you cough 4-5 times, then take a swab and swab the inside of your cheeks, all your gums, tongue, under tongue, and the roof of your mouth. You then put the swab into a special tube, put the lid on, turn the tube upside down several times to distribute some kind of liquid onto the swab. You label it with your information, put it into a plastic bag, label the bag with the same information and then drive forward and put the bag into a large red biohazard bag. All of it was done in my car. For the people working it, this would have to be the absolute safest way to test people.
It was certainly more comfortable than the nasal test.
My test results came quickly: negative.
I’m still asymptomatic. If this holds until Monday, I feel like a dodged a bullet.
Valuable lesson learned.
Just got word my brother is now showing symptoms. He and my mother go for testing Tuesday. Their healthcare aide that tested positive is apparently pretty sick. Worrying from 700 miles away.
Oh, @Singersmom07 , I’m sorry. This is so difficult. I hope all goes smoothly. Perhaps, a talk with their primary doctor on what steps to take if things do start getting serious? I’ll be thinking about you and your family.
@Nrdsb4 , looks like you did dodge a bullet aimed right at you.
My FDIL and I walked right smack into a former COVID den. She wanted to look at an Airbnb house as a possible wedding venue. Just a walk around the grounds. The owner , whom I knew, met us and gave us a tour. Come to find out, that the house had hosted a cluster of COVID cases and had to be shut down, sanitized., all involved tested and quarantined. Had we done this walk about just a few weeks ago, our host would have been COVID+ , and none of knowing.
That was too close, and we’ve decided to just keep our distance in this venue searching. This was the biggest cluster this town had had and it apparently is still spreading in the area where the affected guests returned. Yes, this sort of thing can happen very easily, and there’s no telling who is a carrier.