Benton County: New Cases – 15, Cumulative Cases – 6,244, Cumulative Deaths – 40
Oregon: New Cases: 903, Cumulative Cases – 397,421, Cumulative Deaths – 5,299
At-Home Testing Causing COVID Tracking Issues
The world is opening up again, and part of that reopening includes bands touring, playing for large crowds. It also included COVID-19 scares.
The band Phish packed an Atlantic City beach with fans, many of whom went home with “cold symptoms” that later became positive COVID tests. Dance Gavin Dance – a rock band from Sacramento – had at least two members of their band tested positive during their tour this summer. And Bad Religion had to drop out of their top billed spot on their US leg of a tour due to band members testing positive for COVID, although they still seem to be heading to Europe in the spring for the second leg of their tour.
COVID precautions aside, the issue with touring bands infecting fans lies more in the fact that, when concert attendees come home, they will most likely take an at-home COVID test, and that result may never make it to the local, state, or national count.
At-home tests are an advancement from having to wait in lines or search endlessly for a spot to be tested. They are quick, convenient, and can help a person not spread COVID to others. However, most positive tests done at home won’t raise bells unless the person becomes sick enough to see a doctor. And with the Omicron variant rapidly spreading throughout the world, this lack of recording positive cases will mean that state and local health services will be working with only a fraction of the information they need.
“We have no idea what the true positivity rate is,” Atul Grover, health policy researcher and executive director of the Association of American Medical Colleges said to STAT News.
Grover is part of a team that has been tracking the availability of COVID testing, and sees home testing as a growing worry – especially as a new variant comes around and case numbers are on the rise once more.
With 10 home tests being made available, and President Biden choosing to make home testing free, these at-home results are geared to be the primary means of tracking COVID. Yet our health authorities have no way of knowing precisely how many of these tests are being used between the possibility that someone decides not to take the test, the test expiring before use, or one person electing to use more than one test. And while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have listed correct responses to positive test, there is no way to ensure people will follow those instruction.
STAT News spoke to Mara Aspinall the managing director of Health Catalysts Group which focuses on tracking cases, and she estimated that 40 million tests were performed in an average week, and several million of those tests are done outside of a medical office.
“It would be much better if we knew in an accurate, reliable and consistent way, how may tests are being done,” Aspinall said. “But the most important issue is that people use the tests and use them effectively and regularly.”
In Benton County
If you have been exposed to COVID and took an at-home test, and the test came back as positive. Here is what you need to do to ensure that your result is counted.
- Call the Benton County COVID Call Center at 541-766-6120.
- Tell the person at the center about your result, and give them the information they need to help you.
- You will be asked to take the more effective PCR test to confirm your result.
- While you wait for the PCR results, quarantine, wear your mask, and try to stay at home.
By Sally K Lehman
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