Daily Sitka Sentinel

Positive Test Leads To Contact Tracing

By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer

Contact tracing and subsequent testing have resulted in no other positive COVID-19 cases in Sitka since the one reported Monday, the public health nurse reported today.

“Every day there’s been contact tracing and involvement with this case,” Public Health Nurse Denise Ewing said.

Ewing, along with Juneau’s public health nurse, has been working on contact tracing since Sitka’s second positive test was reported Monday.

The person with the positive test – a woman in the 30- to 39-year-old age group – continues to be asymptomatic, Ewing said. She had gone to the Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center emergency room in the middle of last week and was tested for COVID-19 as part of SEARHC’s COVID testing protocol.

Ewing said everyone contacted during tracing has been cooperative. 

“Contact tracing has not been easy in this case,” she said. “There have been several contacts, but everyone has been very receptive and been working well with public health. They’ve been really great to work with. Many calls have been made and continue to be made. ... As with many cases, it’s been busy.”

Contact tracing involves finding and talking to those who’ve been near the person who tested positive for longer than 15 minutes within the last two weeks. Those tested are asked to self-quarantine until their test results come back negative - and sometimes longer.

Ewing noted the difficult position of the person who has tested positive, and the stress and guilt they feel.

“It’s the burden of feeling you’ve done something wrong,” Ewing said. “No one has done anything wrong, but they feel guilty and carry that with them.”

Ewing is part of a team of health officials who conduct contact tracing statewide. She urged compassion from members of the public.

“It’s a heavy weight - they don’t want to get their family sick, they don’t want to be ostracized,” Ewing said. “I hope someone comes forward to talk about what it’s like ... compassion is important.”

The Sitka Public Health Center and health centers across the state have gotten calls asserting the pandemic is a “hoax,” which is not helpful, given the seriousness of the virus, Ewing said.

“When you work on the health side, it’s a serious pandemic that takes life,” she said. “It’s not political to us. It’s not a hoax when you see people suffering and dying.”

She stressed the continuation of precautions, in particular social distancing, to prevent and slow the spread of COVID.