Public health official recommends new COVID positive people make their own contact lists to aid overwhelmed contact tracers

By Andy Gardner

CANTON. A local public health director says there is a way for people who are being tested for COVID-19 can help their overwhelmed case investigators and contact tracers.

“If you do get a positive test result, what you should do, make a contact list and the activities you’ve done,” says Dr. Dana McGuire, St. Lawrence County Public Health Department director.

She told the St. Lawrence County Board of Legislators during their Dec. 7 full board meeting that the recent rapid rise in COVID-19 makes it difficult for her people to investigate new cases and notify potential contacts of positive cases the same day. She says that’s now taking two or three days. St. Lawrence County has seen an explosion in new COVID-19 cases, an upward trend that started just after Halloween and as of yet shows no signs of reversing. On Monday, Dec. 7, SLC Public Health reported nearly 100 new cases from Dec. 5 to 7, and an additional three deaths from the illness.

“We are seeing more [positive cases], so we are just a little bit slower on how we get to people with case investigations. We can no longer get to people on the first day. It does take two to three days, and the contact tracing has dropped,” the public health director said.

She says people who get positive results having the names and phone numbers of potential contacts can “make it go smoother” for Public Health workers who contract new positive cases.

“It still takes more assistance from the community at large. We’re at the point where this is really a response, we all need to act into,” Dr. McGuire said.

And she emphasized that anyone who tests positive for COVID-19, whether or not they’ve been contacted by Public Health, needs to stay home and self-isolate.

“If you are positive, you need to stay home. If you’re not hearing from us within two days, feel free to give us a call,” she said, adding that people who don’t immediately hear from Public Health could call the contacts from their lists and tell them to stay home and get tested immediately.

“We’re trying our best to add in more staff. This increase has made us have to work our processes just a little bit different, and work as fast as we can,” she said.