08.17.20 COVID-19 Briefing Live Stream Transcript

The County of Santa Clara
August 17, 2020
Live Stream - Briefing Live stream
10:00am PT

Larry Little: Hi everybody thank you for joining us i'm larry little my colleague todd is here in just a few moments we're going to be answering some of your questions around testing also providing an update on what you can expect when visiting a pop-up testing location here in santa clara county but first want to let you know that we have removed our face coverings so everyone including the american sign language interpreters can clearly understand and communicate the information that we will be sharing this morning todd thanks for being here

Todd Nafziger: As always

LL: i want to get right to it as far as uh the pop-up locations there have been some changes at those pop-up locations and we want to make it clear because I know a lot of times when information starts in mountain view it's one story and when it makes it to morgan hill it's a totally different story so we want to say testing is still free testing is still free at our pop-up locations here in santa clara county but let's talk about those changes

TN: Yeah so i think the big change right now is that the county has started to allow people to self-report whether they have insurance or not so it just allows us to kind of keep better metrics and record to see how many people are actually coming to our sites that may have other providers out there in the county so that we can keep track of that obviously but yeah i just want to reiterate what larry had said as well that we are still not charging people for their tests we're not turning people away necessarily because they have insurance so please continue to utilize those sites appropriately don't be turned off by the fact that you may be able to provide our staff the fact that you haven't you actually have insurance as well.

LL: So one of the follow-up questions that uh am i going to be uh to be denied if i get tested at a county pop-up location and i have insurance no not at all people are not going to be denied based on the fact that they have a insurance at this time and it's just as simple as that you will not be denied because you have insurance the order is still in place to ensure that people have that test provided to them at no cost

LL: All right it says i must travel for business but need a test 72 hours prior to leaving is the county providing rapid testing

TN: That's a question we're getting a lot right now because as people are going back to school people are traveling for business there's additional regulations and and requirements that are going uh into place in different states different counties different businesses and so forth at this time the county is not providing a quick turnaround test within a 72-hour period so we do encourage you to maybe contact your provider if you have them to see what kind of services they're providing the community at this time there may be other labs and so forth out there that can provide a 72 hour turnaround it's just at this time we do not have that capability so if you're expecting 72 hours for your results it's not happening for us right now

LL: yeah life is going to be so much better when we do get rapid tests

TN: Oh yes

LL: This question coming in to us this week uh have there been last week have there been any changes to who should get tested?

 TN: At this time no it's still consistent with who should be tested and those individuals are the ones that are symptomatic uh others that are within close contact of somebody who is symptomatic as well as those who are considered front line workers and that have high risk to being exposed to COVID-19 like a restaurant workers like our pharmacy techs like our our our public safety division fireman police officers and so forth so they should be getting tested yeah because they are a very high risk field

LL: This this question has been coming to us a lot over the past few weeks how long do i need to quarantine if i am experiencing symptoms?

TN: Thank you because we're getting a lot of businesses contacting us kind of really trying to determine what they should be doing if they have a positive case so if you have tested positive or you're symptomatic well let's back up first if you're symptomatic you should not go to work and you should quarantine for at least 10 days and ensure that you have at least three days without symptoms meaning that say i have a fever for three days on my first day of exhibiting a fever i stay home well i have that fever for four more days and finally on that fourth day it breaks so if i do not have a fever or any other symptoms after that day that would constitute your three days of not having symptoms so at the end of that initial 10 days you would be eligible to go back to work and as we're always encouraging people who are symptomatic please get tested as well

LL: So what should a person do if they are in close contact with someone who has tested positives

TN: Absolutely great question so if you are considered a close contact which is someone that has been with in six feet for at least 15 minutes of a confirmed positive case you should be quarantining at home for at least 14 days and if you get a test and it still comes back negative because we're encouraging people who are close contacts to get tested after seven days from that exposure to the person you should still quarantine for that 14 day period even if that test comes back negative.

LL: What should employers do if they have an employee who tested positive?

TN: A lot and we have more information on our business and workplaces website but just to touch on a couple of things the actual order still strongly encourages and mandates that employers maximize the number of staff who  work from home just because you can have staff going to the office and the workplace doesn't necessarily mean you should if your staff can work from home effectively with that being said if there is a positive case they must notify the county within four hours of finding out that that person is positive they should also notify those individuals at the job site who are considered close contacts that they were exposed and they should go home and quarantine immediately they should also close down those work areas that were where that individual was working and clean appropriately we have those additional guidelines on our website as well as making sure that they air out the room and so forth and to make sure that they can get rid of as much COVID as they possibly can yeah

LL: So um i know a lot of people are asking questions regarding uh when how long will it take for me to get my test back so i think it's best to check with your testing locations regarding that

TN: Absolutely check with the individual site because everybody's a little bit different right now

LL: All right todd thank you so much.

TN: Thank you

LL: Facebook live in Spanish is on wednesday and Friday at 11 a.m in vietnamese on thursday at and it is going to be very very warm this week well it's already warm so we want you to stay cool and check on our social media pages for an update on those cooling centers that are available around the county you know this is very important that people are careful uh during this time because we can have fires we can have heat related illnesses also be sure to not take your pets with you uh to the store as you travel around and leave them in the car uh one uh habit that i have even if no one is with me I always just check my back seat i check my back seat just in case you know make sure nobody is in there I don't

TN: Somebody snuck in

LL: Yeah yeah so just be careful and take advantage of those cooling centers and even if you know someone who does not have access to social media let them know about those cooling centers because we want to be safe here in the county that will do it for this edition of live with the county of santa clara we will see you back here on Wednesday thanks for joining us have a good day stay cool