Marshall County Health Nurse Lisa Letsinger took time to address reporters Tuesday afternoon who brought up concerns of residents surrounding the reporting of COVID-19 cases.
Letsinger noted that residents are tested in the county and some are tested out of the county at a variety of locations. Once the tests come back, the results are attributed to the county where the patient resides. Those results are then investigated. According to Letsinger, the Marshall County Health Department looks carefully at the address of the patient to make sure it is a Marshall County resident. In areas close to the county’s borders, it may be reported as a duplicate case at the state level and those numbers of often remedied in the next day’s report distributed by the Indiana State Department of Health.
She noted that it occurred the other day where the number was 19 in the state report and then 17 in the state’s report the next day. It occurs a lot throughout the state.
Beyond that, any person with direct contact with a COVID-19 patient is notified and Health Department officials ask those contacts to self-quarantine at home for 14 days from the last day of contact with the patient. Close contacts include the people who have been within six feet of a COVID-19 patient for 10 minutes or longer. If no symptoms develop after 14 days, the person that had contact with the COVID-19 positive person is no longer considered to be at-risk.
Letsinger said they don’t release specific information about COVID-19 patients to the media or public and follow HIPAA guidelines.
“Basically, we release the number of cases, but we try not to give out any information that could specifically identify a person,” commented Letsinger.
When it comes to releasing specific areas where a COVID-19 patient may be living, Letsinger said that more populated areas could potentially have more cases, but she doesn’t want to specifically give out that information to protect patients.
“I respect people’s privacy and I guess that’s where I come from,” Letsinger stated.
Since COVID-19 is a communicable disease, it is required to be recorded as such at the local and state level. That means as the number of cases of COVID-19 grows, the statistics will follow the numbers.
“Once the lab is in we count them as a patient,” explained Letsinger. “We don’t go back and subtract recovered patients. …It always stays as counted for that specific disease process regardless of whatever happens. If there is a death, we would count that. That process remains for any communicable disease in the State of Indiana.”
Letsinger encourages all residents to keep at a social distance and to keep washing their hands with soap and water for 20 seconds or longer at a time or use hand sanitizer when hand washing isn’t readily available.
Health Department Administrator Ashley Garcia urges employers to update policies and procedures in how they operate in order to protect their workforce and community members.
