On June 8, 2020, the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health sent Health Alert/Update #168 to health care providers, hospitals and other health care facilities. It had two parts: wider COVID-19 testing as the state reopened, and a request to report patients who seemed to get COVID-19 a second time.
Wider testing
The state said that more tests were available, that people could spread the virus before or without symptoms, and that people were moving around more. For these reasons it supported more testing by providers and in communities. The goal was to find infected people fast, isolate them, and trace their contacts.
The alert asked providers to test:
- Anyone with symptoms who might have COVID-19, however mild
- Close contacts of cases, with or without symptoms (for contacts with no symptoms, no sooner than 5 days after exposure)
- People found through cluster and outbreak investigations, including at workplaces and large gatherings
- People at drive-through and other low-barrier community testing events, most of all in areas with high or rising case counts
- Staff and residents of nursing homes and other group living settings with symptoms, and all staff and residents when a case was found in the facility
- Patients 65 and older and patients with underlying conditions who had symptoms
- Hospital patients, health care workers, first responders and other essential workers with symptoms
The alert said community testing events should make sure people got their results and a link to care. It also asked providers to work with more than one laboratory so supplies would not run out.
Suspected re-infection
Reports from South Korea and China described positive PCR tests in patients who had recovered from COVID-19. At the time it was not clear if these were new infections or leftover viral material. The CDC worked with the Emerging Infections Network to study such cases. Clinicians were asked to report any confirmed COVID-19 patient age 18 or older who recovered and then seemed to get sick again.
At the time of the alert, a close contact meant someone within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes. The state named the Eastern Panhandle as the region with the highest risk of rising cases.
In Kanawha County, drive-up testing grew that same month. See drive-up testing at the health department and other health advisories.
This guidance is from June 2020. It is kept here as a record and is not current advice. Check current guidance from the CDC or your doctor.