City of Cupertino, CA County of Santa Clara COVID-19 Videos, 14 Jan 2022

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From YouTube: County Public Health Dept. Press Conference (Guidance on COVID Testing) - January 14, 2022

Description

With a high demand for COVID-19 testing locally and throughout the nation, the County of Santa Clara Public Health Department is offering guidance to those unsure of what kind of test to use and whether or not they need one.

The testing options are a PCR test, typically administered in a clinic or drive-through operation; and an antigen test, which are also available for home use.

The County recommends that the antigen tests be used for purposes of shortening isolation or quarantine periods for those who have tested positive or been exposed to a person with COVID.

Positive antigen results should be recognized as valid – there is no need for a follow up PCR test at a healthcare or County facility.

In addition, people who have previously tested positive within the past 90 days should not get tested again during that time frame unless they have new symptoms – in which case they should use an antigen test.

PCR tests are generally more sensitive than antigen tests, but antigen tests are good at detecting when people are most infectious.

“We want to provide some practical guidance to the community about COVID-19 testing,” said Dr. Sara Cody, Health Officer and Director of Public Health for the County of Santa Clara. “Testing opportunities are not unlimited, and we want to make sure tests are being used when and where they are most needed.”

The County also reminds patients of all healthcare systems that they have a right to a test from their provider if they have symptoms or have been exposed to an individual who has COVID-19. Large healthcare systems remain subject to the Health Officer’s Testing Order.

The County of Santa Clara offers the following guidance to cover the fundamentals of COVID-19 testing.

YOU SHOULD GET TESTED IF:

* You have new symptoms that might mean you have COVID: Fatigue, headache, body/muscle aches, cough, fever, sore throat, and/or congestion.

Please note that if you have new symptoms and you are at high risk for severe illness from COVID because of other medical conditions, older age, or having a compromised immune system, it is especially important to get tested because if you test positive, you may qualify for early treatment to reduce your risk of severe illness.

YOU MAY CONSIDER GETTING TESTED IF:

* It’s been 2-5 days after you have a known exposure to someone with COVID, especially if you are unvaccinated or have symptoms.

YOU SHOULD NOT GET TESTED WITH PCR TESTING IF:

* You have already tested positive by a home/antigen test. Assume you have COVID and isolate accordingly. Do not get tested again at a testing lab – it is unnecessary and uses resources that could be used to test another individual.

* You have tested positive in the last 90 days. You do not need get tested again unless you are newly symptomatic or required to quarantine—if this is your situation, use a home/antigen test.

WHERE TO GET A TEST:

* Under the September 16, 2020 health order, large healthcare providers are legally required to provide prompt testing to patients who are symptomatic or have been exposed to someone who has COVID. However the Emergency Room is for patients who are very sick and need emergency care. It is not for COVID testing.

* The County continues to test individuals at its various mass testing sites and clinics. Visit sccfreetest.org.

* Home antigen tests are a valuable tool. Starting Jan. 15, health insurers nationwide are required to cover the costs of up to eight at-home COVID tests per month. A positive result on an antigen test should be considered final; an additional PCR test should not be done. Home antigen tests are available through pharmacies, various retail stores as well as online vendors.

Workplaces, schools, and childcare facilities are encouraged to accept results from home testing so that individuals do not need to go to a testing site or their healthcare provider and use testing resources that could be used to test others.

IF YOU HAVE SYMPTOMS OF COVID AND ARE UNABLE TO GET TESTED:

* Assume you have COVID and follow isolation guidelines. If members of your household are having similar symptoms, and at least one of them tests positive for COVID, assume that all members have COVID.

* If you are having difficulty breathing or other severe symptoms, seek medical attention immediately.

This press conference was recorded on January 14, 2022.

To schedule your free COVID test, visit https://sccfreetest.org

For more information regarding the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak in Cupertino, please visit https://www.cupertino.org/coronavirus

A

For the latest information regarding the kovid 19 pandemic in cupertino, please visit.

B

Cupertino.Org coronavirus.

C

Good afternoon my name is ricardo romero morales, I'm a lead public information officer with the county of santa clara. Thank you for being here today today, we'll be providing an update on guidance to best use, covenanting testing options here in santa clara county. Today we have dr sarah cody, who is our health officer and director of the public health department here in santa clara county, and we also have james williams, our county council, we'll start this press conference in english. We will then take questions from the media.

C

After that we will move into statements in spanish, chinese, vietnamese and tagalog from the podium without any further ado, I welcome dr sarah cody.

D

Good morning or good afternoon, I wanted to give first a little bit of context about where we are in the pandemic locally. Before I talk more specifically about current testing recommendations, so today we are just actually nine days short of marking, the two-year anniversary of when we started formally responding to the pandemic here in santa clara county. So we are closing in on our two-year anniversary and we are still in the throes of the highest infection rates that we have seen to date.

D

During this entire two years, we have learned that omicron spreads like wildfire, and we know that many sectors, including health care, education and many other critical sectors, are experiencing a lot of staff shortages because of illness from omicron, and we also know that there's a lot of change, a lot of fatigue and a lot to keep up with, but I do want to offer a glimmer of hope and that hope comes from our sewage surveillance.

D

So you will remember that when I uh spoke in december, that was our first indication that we had a problem with omicron.

D

This is a surveillance system that we track and follow quite closely along with others, and we are now seeing some signs that increasingly make me feel confident that that the levels of infection are just starting to come down.

D

What we are seeing is that all four sewer sheds uh that we track in our county are showing a decrease in the amount of omicron detected, um we're by far from out of the woods. What I'm saying is maybe we're starting to approach where we were two weeks ago, but at least we're not um continuing uh to to rise up as far as hospitalizations.

D

That's quite a different story. Our hospitalizations are continuing to increase and we anticipate that that will be the trend for a little bit more because hospitalizations lag the increases in infections, but at least I wanted to just give that little bit of light. We know that there is light ahead.

D

So that's really the context um for the uh the comments that I'm going to make about testing.

D

We've always said- and we know now more than ever- that we have to put these layers of protection together and when we have a shortage of one layer as we do currently with testing, we have to double up on those other layers and really focus on them. We still have fantastic masks of great quality, an enormous quantity we can use those. We still have lots of vaccination and boosters for anyone, who's not up to date and many other layers.

D

But let's talk a little bit about testing, so we know that in our community, as in many places across the country, our current demand far out c exceeds the supply of tests that we have, and so that is the spirit for the guidance that we're providing about. So when should you use when should you get tested and and when should you use which kind of test? So just a few key points? First, when should you use an anagen test? Those are the ones that you can buy over the counter.

D

Those tests are best used to quote test out early from isolation. So if you already know you have covid and you're just wondering when am I no longer infectious? When am I no longer a risk to others? An anagen test is the best test to use there.

D

Similarly, if you've already had coven in the last 90 days um and you get um and you need to test again, an anagen test is the best to use, and the reason why this is is the other test. The pcr test is so good at picking up virus even little pieces of dead virus that it's going to test long after you're infectious to others, and that's why an antigen test is sometimes the best test to use.

D

So when should you use a pcr, the pcr is still the optimal test. If you have been exposed to somebody and you're wondering whether you're going to develop the infection, however, an antigen test can also be used for that as well.

D

A couple other things. I just want to note that are super important, no matter what, if you have symptoms of covid, isolate yourself right away?

D

If you have symptoms, isolate yourself right away, we know how prevalent covet is, and so that's the most important step you should take and you can use either test to figure out if you have covet and finally- and this is really important- please do not use emergency rooms as testing centers.

D

Emergency rooms are there for people who require emergency care. We urge everyone who needs tests to access tests somewhere other than the emergency department.

D

So um I just want to return before I close to those layers of protection and and emphasize again. Testing is an important layer, but because, right now and by the way, we don't expect this situation to last for that much longer, but because right now you can't get a test at a moment's notice. We're issuing guidance about when it's really important to test, and we want to remind you that there are many other layers and ways to protect yourself, masking vaccination ventilation, avoiding gatherings, staying home when you're ill etc.

D

So, thank you very much and I think james williams, our county council, is just going to offer a few comments before we open it up to questions. Thank you.

E

Thank you, dr cody good afternoon. My name is james williams and I'm the county council for the county of santa clara, just wanted to take this opportunity, since we're talking about testing to remind everyone that large health care systems are still subject to the health officers september 16 2020 order regarding testing what that means is that if you are symptomatic or you're a close contact and you're a patient of any of the large health care systems here in santa clara county, you have a right to a test.

E

You have a right to a test immediately, if you present, or within one day, if you call to schedule a test, that's still in place under that health order and if you're having issues or challenges- and we know that people are, you can visit seccovidconcerns.org, that's sccovidconcerns.org, so that we can then get that information and take appropriate, responsive action with the large health care systems.

E

Testing's been a challenge throughout the pandemic. That's why that testing order was put in place, and we really do need all of the large health care systems in the county to do their part, so that the burden isn't solely on the county itself, which is currently providing a disproportionate percentage of the testing to our community. Thank you.

C

All right, we will now take questions from the media, we'll start from this side. If you can, please identify yourself and the outlet that you're with we'll start over here.

F

Are we that uh level and we'll react to that? Maybe these health care providers are not carrying their weight.

E

Sure so the question was uh about the responsive action that we might take if there are issues with compliance with the testing order um and my reaction kind of to uh you know, what's going on with it, with the health care systems and the testing availability.

E

The short answer is: this is a health order we have in the past, taken enforcement with respect to the testing order, we're prepared to do so again if needed, but we do need to know what's happening and that's why I put out there. The sec, coveted concerns dot, org portal, so that, if we're getting uh situations where people are presenting and they're unable to get a test and they qualify under that order, we then find out so that we can follow up.

E

We haven't been getting those complaints through the portal to date that makes it really hard for us to take that follow-up action. Now the data is pretty clear that the large systems are not proportionately providing the testing, but we really need that individual information from folks who are having challenges.

E

So I encourage people who are to visit that portal, provide us with that information so that we can follow up. You know. The other thing I would say is: it is absolutely critical for this to be an all of community effort, and one piece of that absolutely is the role of our large healthcare systems to provide vaccinations to provide testing.

E

Unfortunately- and this is very clear in the data, unfortunately, the county itself has had to provide disproportionate access for vaccination and testing far greater than the number of people in our community who rely on the county health system for their primary care vaccinations, that's basic primary care, that's where we go to get our you know, tetanus booster, that's where our kids go to get their basic vaccinations. It's where we go to get our flu shots.

E

Covid vaccines are part of that basic primary care. The same is true for this diagnostic cova testing. People should be able to get that access from their primary care provider. That should be the first place that they can go in our community. People are going first to the county health system. We're glad that the county health system has been able to provide that service to the community, but it is not reasonable for the county health system to provide such a disproportionate share of the testing and vaccinations.

E

We absolutely need the other large systems like pamph, like kaiser and others, to step up and do their part as well.

E

Absolutely putting them on notice and violations of the health order are absolutely subject to the same civil enforcement as all the other health orders. What do we have over here.

G

You said you don't expect sex or relief in the testing storage in the near future.

G

D

Are a lot of tests in the pipeline antigen tests, um both from the federal and the state government? uh And I don't have an exact timeline on that, but I would say you know in the near-ish future we may see a softening of the supply crisis.

G

D

Far too early um I want I want to emphasize. I want to do two things one. I want to provide a glimmer of hope to the community that this isn't going to go on forever and ever and ever this this this surge that we're in right now, which is why I wanted to make sure you all understand what the sewage surveillance looks like, but at the moment we are still in the middle of the greatest surge that we've had during the entire two-year pandemic, and every layer of protection is incredibly important for two reasons.

D

One helps to protect ourselves and equally important. It helps to protect our community and bring us through this crisis as quickly as possible. So really the focus right now is continuing to practice those layers of protection and to focus on the ones that we can control. So, if there's one that we can't control, for example, testing we do our best and then we really focus on the ones that we can control thanks.

D

What we know is that, across our county, emergency departments are seeing a very large number of people coming in seeking care and requiring care. While I don't know the exact proportion that are there solely for testing.

D

I I simply know that the emergency departments are very full and I want to make sure that everyone knows that. That's not the right place to go for testing. It's the right place to go for emergency care.

C

E

Sure so the question was: what type of situation would we want reported to the sccovidconcerns.org portal and what we're looking for if there are suspected violations of that september, 2020 testing order? What does that mean? That means, if you are symptomatic or a close contact, and you have tried to get access to testing from your health care provider, but we're told it's not available for a week or we're told to go somewhere else or we're directed, for example, to the county health system. Those would be violations.

E

Those would be the exact kinds of things that we'd like to hear about again. If you're symptomatic or a close contact.

C

You mentioned that you know the county is taking a disappointment about the testing. Do you have figures? You know how much percentage.

E

Sure so the question is some data around the what's happening with the testing, so the county health system has about 300 000 residents that get their primary care from the county health systems clinics, but that's about 15 of the county population and has been providing over 20 percent of the testing. By contrast, for example, uh kaiser is the primary care provider for about 600 thousand county residents. That's about that's! Over thirty percent of the county population they've been providing around twelve percent of the testing pamph, which is part of sutter health.

E

Very large health system has about 16 and a half percent of county residents that it is responsible for primary care, but has been only providing 2.4 percent of the testing. That's what I'm referring to when I'm saying disproportionate. We would expect primary care systems to be providing access to these basic primary care.

F

Parents have been getting about exposure notices, but you can't get a pcr there's too much demand. What's your guidance on how to test your kids doing that.

D

Right this is a question with regards to schools and testing in schools. I have uh just uh two two thoughts to offer. One is the importance of of in-person learning for all students two years into the pandemic. We do know that that our children have suffered academic learning, loss, extraordinary mental health challenges, social isolation, etc.

D

So there we know that the harms of not being in school are fairly great for most students, and there are some students for whom the risk of covid is still quite significant because of an underlying health condition, but for most students the balance certainly weighs in favor of being in school.

D

We also know that there's so much covid circulating in the community that that everyone has a risk of exposure in the classroom on the campus in the community at home after school, etc, etc, etc. So it's getting increasingly difficult to pick out, which is which I think that um there's well. I there's been new guidance to schools from the state and it takes a different tact so, rather than tracing each individual child, it's more thinking about exposure in the classroom or even indeed, in the school.

D

Our recommendation, thus is simply that kids get frequent, regular testing. We understand that there are challenges in getting antigen tests into some schools, some schools, not we. The state has been sending lots of tests directly to schools and we are also in contact with schools so important that tests are available to schools. It's not perfect. We are all working together to ensure that the supply is as good as it can be to keep our kids in school.

D

Right now, where we are in the pandemic, where we are still in the middle of a surge, our general recommendation not a mandate, but our recommendation is to avoid large gatherings. While there are layers of safety that can be put into place masking testing vaccination, boosting that will help a lot.

D

There are just probabilities at work and I would avoid large gatherings. That would be my recommendation, not a mandate, but my recommendation he's.

F

Asking those people to test before they come in.

D

Yeah, it's also a challenge so that that is an option for those people, given that our community, at this moment in time, does not have a massive supply of tests. That might not be the best way to use the limited test that we have.

G

D

The first part is when a patient goes to the er to get testing, can they be turned away.

D

Our job at the county in in public health, is to communicate clearly to the public when to use which resources and what to do, and our clear message to the public is: if what you need is a test, go to sec test and look for a test. If what you need is emergency care, because you're very ill go to the emergency department.

C

We'll take one last question I'll be here.

D

The question is around who uh who are being hospitalized who's being hospitalized?

D

We have looked closely at rates, so we look at hospitalization rates by vaccination status and it is very clear that the rates of hospitalization among people who are not vaccinated are much much higher than their rates among those who are and among those who are vaccinated. The rate among those who are vaccinated, but not boosted, is higher than those who are boosted.

D

Two other things to remember about our hospitals. Is it's not just that people are being hospitalized because they're ill with covet and need covert care? There are a lot of people that are being hospitalized for something else and test positive, but both have a significant impact on our healthcare delivery system, because they require extra care with isolation and infection control.

E

I just wanted to add one other thing I was asked earlier about the testing data, and obviously this this conversation this afternoon is focused on testing, but I did want to note we're seeing the same disproportionality issues in vaccination delivery and, if folks are interested in that data county health system. Again 15 of the residents get primary care from the county health system. County health system has provided over 37 percent of the vaccination doses, administered kaiser 31 of residents get primary care only 14.8 percent of vaccine doses delivered and pam sutter health.

E

uh Sixteen and a half percent of residents get their primary care and only 3.5 percent of vaccine doses delivered so very similar situation there as well in case that's relevant for all of you. Thank you.

A

For the latest information regarding the kovid 19 pandemic in cupertino, please visit.

B

Cupertino.Org coronavirus.