Talbot County has tested one person for COVID-19 and the results were negative, the county’s health officer said Tuesday night.
Maryland has reported nine confirmed cases in three counties, none on the Eastern Shore, and all those cases involved patients who had recently traveled.
The state, as of Tuesday, has tested 68 people, Dr. Fredia S. Wadley told the county council, which was sitting as the Board of Health. “As the testing increases, we normally would expect to see more cases.”
The virus has not adversely affected children, but is more severe in senior citizens and patients with compromised immune systems.
“What we’re pressing is to be extremely cautious about the seniors in long-term care facilities,” Wadley said.
According to the state’s new recommendation, nursing homes should:
• restrict access to visitors
• help residents facilitate online chats with family members and friends
• ban staff from traveling overseas
• monitor staff members who have traveled abroad in the last 14 days or had contact with someone who has been overseas during that time, particularly if they have a fever, cough or sore throat.
The U.S. has about 750 confirmed cases, concentrated in Washington, California, and New York, she said.
“Those three states are having community transmission,” she said, meaning cases have been confirmed in people who had neither a history of travel somewhere the virus is prevalent nor close contact with another confirmed patient.
“Remember 80 percent of these cases are very mild, you couldn’t tell them from a cold or flu,” she said.
Wadley urged patients with flu-like symptoms to call their doctor rather than seek treatment at the emergency room.
“If it’s the flu, you’re going to spread it worse, so that’s not the place,” she said. However, patients who are really having trouble breathing should be taken to the ER.
Doctors may decide to take samples to be tested by private labs. Those private labs say patients suspected of having COVID-19 should not come into their testing centers but to call their private doctor.
Wadley said the state insurance commission has issued guidance that the tests should be provided with $0 co-pay for those with insurance and without charge for the uninsured.
“They don’t want a co-pay or lack of insurance to keep anybody from getting a test when they need it,” she said.
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