My Family Keeps Getting Exposed to Asymptomatic, But Positive COVID-19 Individuals and We Just Tested Negative — for now!
Thanks to occupying a household with social twenty-somethings with less than rigid quarantine habits, we have had two exposures to COVID-19, but we all just tested negative. My family consists of my husband and I (we are both 56) and our two adult sons (21 and 24). Our quarantine is only as good as the least quarantined member. My youngest son has friends over (some of whom work in bars) and they socialize outside with no masks or social distancing. We, as a family, have now twice been exposed to a houseguest who tested positive but was asymptomatic. Today, three of us just received a negative rapid COVID-19 test. The youngest family member will test tomorrow because he takes the LSAT today (yea!).
What does exposure to asymptomatic but COVID-19 positive individuals tells us about the benefits of more or less quarantine? The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends testing of asymptomatic individuals with recent exposure to known SARS-COV-2 (or COVID-19). However, the CDC also says that early testing after exposure may miss many infections and therefore a quarantine is still warranted. Serial testing over many points in time may be more likely to detect infection. But practically speaking, we found that testing was problematic. On a prior exposure, my older son experienced delays in tele-medicine appointments, limited availability of testing sites, long delays/lines at testing centers, and seven days later he still does not have his test results. Today, we went to a private facility and used our family health insurance at a delay of two and one-half hours, but we all have test results in hand. I might add that we had a familial connection to the medical provider which enhanced this experience.
If testing does not always give us adequate information on our own levels of quarantine, what does the national data show? Nationally, the overall percentage of specimens testing positive for SARS-COV-2 decreased from week 26 (9.2%0 to week 27 (8.8%) nationally but increased in five regions. Increases were reported in New York/New Jersey/Puerto Rico, the Southeast, the Midwest, South Central and Central regions. The overall cumulative hospitalization rate is 107.2 per 100,000 with the highest rates in persons 65 years or older. Death rates decreased nationally from 6.9% to 5.5%, representing the 11th consecutive week with a declining percentage rate.