With Will County among 14 counties in Illinois at an “alert level” for coronavirus, area contact tracers report a “disruptive mixed bag of attitude” when it comes to the virus.
The warning means the county has seen increases in two or more COVID-19 “risk indicators,” said Illinois’ Department of Public Health. In Will County, those two cumbersome metrics were an increased case rate and a two-week increase in hospitalizations for coronavirus-like diseases, according to the county’s health department.
Counties reaching the alert level are urged to “implement measures for increased testing and tracking of contact,” said the Will County Department of Health, noting that although it has done both, its contact tracking program is still ” in his childhood. ”
Still, newly hired contacts reported “too much of a ‘so what’ attitude,” according to WCHD Contact Tracers Program Managers Angela Maffeo.
“At first, they are often ready to talk, but then they stop when our contacts ask about who they were at the location where they may have picked up the virus,” Maffeo said in a statement. “They do not want to tell anyone, although it is vital that these close contacts be informed and quarantined to potentially prevent the virus from spreading to others.”
‘You often hear the attitude of’ what’s in it for me? “In other words, when their family is in order, they feel they have no worries,” said co-manager Susan O’Keefe. Or even in their own family, you might have four people test positive after going to an event, and then the one testing negative thinks he or she is free at home. That is not true. They could later become symptomatic, or pass it on to someone else. They should remain isolated for 14 days, starting with the last day they may have been exposed to the person who is in the infected period. “
Concerns about traces of contact have been reported not only in Will County but throughout the state.
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“The problem is that a contact can not leave much information for you on a voicemail because it specializes you,” he said. “And that’s why we need you to answer the phone. We need people to just pick up your phone, you know, it’s extremely important to all of us that you get in touch.”
So far, Will County has reported a total of 10,013 cases since the pandemic began, and Monday for the first time passed the 10,000 mark. The province reported a 6.8% positivity rate as of August 8 and state data shows the area reports 93 new cases per 100,000 residents each week.
The province added 13 others when it reached the ‘warning level’ on Friday.
The counties each “saw cases such as outbreaks related to marriages, businesses, birthday parties, long-term facilities and other municipal institutions, bars, sports camps, and spread among members of the same household,” according to IDPH.
“Public health officials see that people in some communities are not wearing masks, or if they are, they are being worn incorrectly,” IDPH said in a release. “Local health departments find it challenging to obtain the information needed to stop local transmission, by quickly identifying exposures of business and business contacts. Inconsistent messages from locally elected leaders contribute to the ongoing transmission in some communities where not many audiences are concerned about the consequences or maintenance of social distance, bans on large gatherings, or orders for quarantine / isolation. ”
On Tuesday, one region in Illinois will be the first to see restrictions from the state due to increasing numbers for coronavirus.
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