Washington state health officials disagree with CDC guidance on asymptomatic testing
Officials from the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) covered a range of topics at its weekly news briefing, including its new method of calculating COVID-19 positivity rates and its opposition to new CDC guidance on testing.
CDC guidelines on testing asymptomatic close contacts
The CDC came out with new guidance which said it may not be necessary to test close contacts of infected people if they’re asymptomatic. State Health Officials expressed disappointment at the guidance and argued it sends the wrong message.
“I think it’s unfortunate that it may have confused and clouded the message,” said Charissa Fotinos, Deputy Chief Medical Officer of the state Health Care Authority, who leads the statewide testing effort.
The new CDC guidance stems from data that suggests that it generally takes 5-6 days after exposure for the virus to be detectable, according to Fotinos. If you test too early, testing can produce false negative results.
However, Washington state continues to recommend that all close contacts of a person with COVID-19 should be tested, whether they exhibit symptoms or not, and quarantine, Fotinos said.
“Even if you get tested and you test negative, you still could be infected and that virus is still incubating, and you need to wait the full 14 days before you return to normal activity,” said DOH Health Secretary John Wiesman.
DOH has established a call center to address questions from the public about what is happening in Washington state regarding COVID-19. Residents can call 800-525-0127 and press #. To find a testing site, check with your local health department or call 211 for more resources.
State data changes
The DOH data dashboard will now display the total number of tests administered, rather than the number of individuals tested. In the past, even if a person was tested multiple times, only one test would be counted.
The current rate of testing is about 13,000 tests per day, a rate that’s been steady since July, state data show.
Wiesman said the previous metric was undercounting the actual amount of testing, especially among groups such as essential workers who are tested on a regular basis.
The new methodology takes a more precise snapshot of testing volume and positivity rates day by day, Wiesman said.
“If we are really trying to get a sense of a point in time, of the people we are testing on this day what percent are testing positive, if we just throw out some of the negative tests because people have tested [positive] at another point in time, that really artificially inflates our positivity rates.”
The new method will allow easier county comparisons, according to Fotinos.
“It allows us to get a more localized look at testing rates, and if there are parts of the state or communities that are underrepresented or seemingly underrepresented in their access to testing, then that gives us a signal to say we should take a closer look and ensure that testing is equitable across the state,” she said.
Bremerton hospital outbreak
Officials also addressed the outbreak at St. Michael Medical Center in Bremerton, where 30 staff and 15 patients have tested positive.
A reporter from the Seattle Times asked why officials waited a week to notify the public after the Kitsap Health District declared an outbreak on Aug. 14, and if any policies will change after several outlets reported that some hospital employees were not notified by the hospital and found out about the outbreak from watching the news.
Wiesman deferred to Kitsap Public Health, which initially asked the hospital to notify patients. On Aug. 21, the DOH announced the outbreak.
“Once the [state health] department was engaged with recommendations, then very quickly we also encouraged and did a joint notification,” he said.
Wiesman did not address whether future outbreaks would be handled any differently.
“We certainly encourage transparency in terms of letting the community know when there’s an outbreak that might put the community at risk,” Wiesman said. “We encourage the hospital to communicate with their employees and staff transparently and timely. That’s the expectation we hold them to and I think that’s the expectation the public holds them to as well.”
This story was originally published August 27, 2020 at 5:45 AM.
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