Indiana State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box is encouraging residents to get tested for COVID-19 if they are experiencing symptoms.
“We’ve seen some of our sites experience significant drop-offs in testing and the number of people who have registered to participate in the Fairbanks study testing is low – lower than our first two rounds,” stated Dr. Box. “I want to urge Hoosiers to get tested and to participate in the study. As a reminder, this is the first time the study has looked at children aged five and above. We really want to be sure to capture data that will help us to better understand how COVID is impacting our younger Hoosiers.”
Dr. Box noted that some people who may be coughing or sneezing and believe it to be allergies should consider getting a COVID-19 test.
“If we don’t know who’s positive and take steps to isolate those individuals, we risk allowing COVID-19 to spread unchecked across our state and that means our lives will be disrupted for a longer period of time. We’ve done a lot of work to get to Stage 5 in our reopening plan and we can’t let off the gas. So, please get tested and participate in the Fairbanks study if you’ve been invited to do so.”
Over 700 people are working as contact tracers and Dr. Box hopes that everyone will answer when contact tracers call to help curb the spread of COVID-19. She said contact tracers will not ask for social security numbers or bank account information. They will ask residents all of the locations they have visited and people they have been in contact with in recent days.
