The County Public Health Laboratory is now able to test for the novel coronavirus, the cause of the respiratory disease COVID-19, the Health and Human Services Agency announced.
\nHaving that capability means that HHSA will no longer have to send all specimens to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, substantially reducing the time it takes for results.
\n“This is great news for San Diego County and will help with our ongoing efforts to contain COVID-19,” said Wilma Wooten, M.D., M.P.H., County public health officer. “Being able to test locally means that when we have patients under investigation, we can more rapidly remove unneeded restrictions from those without infection. Should someone test positive, we will continue to keep them isolated.”
\nThe County Public Health Lab now has the capability to do up to 40 tests in one run. The lab is one of the dozens across the nation certified by the CDC to test for the new coronavirus.
\n“The number of specimens we\u2019ve been getting for testing is currently low, but we expect the need to increase,” said Brett Austin, director of HHSA\u2019s Public Health Lab. “We are ready to increase capacity as required.”
\nPrior to getting the testing kit, the County Public Health Lab had to send specimens to CDC and results took several days to return. Now, those tested for potential cases of COVID-19 will know their results in 24 to 48 hours. Positive tests will still need to be confirmed by the CDC.
\nCDC currently recommends testing patients with symptoms \u2014 fever, cough or difficulty breathing \u2014 after returning from China or other areas with community transmission of coronavirus disease or who have had known contact with a confirmed COVID-19 case.
\nThe risk of COVID-19 is still very low, especially if you have not traveled to an area where the virus has been detected or had close contact with a patient who tested positive for this new coronavirus.
\n“We want to assure the public that we are prepared and are conducting surveillance just like we do for any communicable disease,” Wooten said. HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF It\u2019s important for the public to be prepared should a local COVID-19 outbreak occur. To limit the spread of infection, you should: \u2022 Wash your hands\u00a0often to help protect you from germs. \u2022 Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. \u2022 Avoid close contact\u00a0with people who are sick. \u2022 If you are sick, stay home and\u00a0keep your distance\u00a0from others to protect them from getting sick too. \u2022 Cover your mouth and nose\u00a0with a tissue when coughing or sneezing, then was your hands. \u2022 Practice other good health habits. Get plenty of sleep, be physically active, manage your stress, drink plenty of fluids and eat nutritious food.
\nFor more information about COVID-19, visit the\u00a0CDC\u2019s website\u00a0or\u00a0HHSA\u2019s Epidemiology Unit.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The County Public Health Laboratory is now able to test for the novel coronavirus, the cause of the respiratory disease COVID-19, the Health and Human Services Agency announced. Having that capability means that HHSA will no longer have to send all specimens to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, substantially reducing the time it […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":267226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"San Diego County Public Health Lab able to test for new coronavirus","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[12360,11560,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-267227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-duplicate","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}