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What should I do if I discover that I have been in close contact with a person who tested positive? In the first place, the path is simple if you are asymptomatic, it becomes more complex if you have a fever, cough or breathing difficulties: the tampon must be immediate, but with the health system in big trouble these days, there are reports of people who even with symptoms, they wait too long to get tested.
But let’s go in order and start with the least serious hypothesis. Mr. K. discovers that he has had contact with a positive, but fortunately has no symptoms. Says the doctor Enrico Di Rosa, Director of the Public Health Service of theAsl Rome 1: «From the epidemiological point of view, if you are asymptomatic, it is not useful to rub yourself immediately after contact, it is better to wait 4-5 days. But the important thing is to isolate yourself immediately and respect the quarantine. In theory, performing the swab at 4-5 days, therefore at the correct times, in close asymptomatic contact favors epidemiological investigation and the reconstruction of the contagion chain, but at this point we are traveling to 21,000 positives daily: it is It is an illusion to think of reaching all close contacts on time. One fact must also be taken into account: the Scientific Technical Committee has established new rules to allow an asymptomatic patient, considered close contact with a positive person, to come out of quarantine. It works like this: after ten days you have to do a swab and if it is negative, you can go back to normal life. Among other things, fast, antigenic is also sufficient. Often, since the system is saturated, instead of the expected 4-5 day buffer in a perfect world, ten are expected for the output test. If you can’t get the swab, after 14 days of being asymptomatic you can still discontinue the quarantine. Speak differently if there are symptoms. “In this case – explains Di Rosa – it is naturally very important to proceed with the diagnosis quickly”. Also in this case, immediately, isolation is necessary; Fortunately, if hospitalization is not necessary, because the symptoms are not severe, a new swab is performed at seventeen days (once the symptoms have disappeared), which allows the isolation to end.
There is another problem that often makes the mechanism unclear. When should close contact with the hypothetical Mr. K. be considered? The Ministry of Health lists a long series: Mr. K. is in close contact if he lives at home with a person who has tested positive; if he has had direct and non-fleeting physical contact with a positive: a handshake, a hug; if you have been in a room for a long time with the positive, perhaps for a meeting, without wearing a mask. Finally, there is a whole series of cases related to transport. Suppose Mr. K. traveled by plane or train with a passenger who tested positive. In this case, the reference is to those vehicles where tracking is possible because the tickets are nominative (always on the plane, on high-speed trains for trains). According to the Ministry of Health, a positive person is a close contact of someone who “has traveled seated by train, plane or other means of transport within two seats, in any direction compared to a case of Covid-19; fellow travelers and personnel assigned to the section of the plane or train where the index case was found are also close contacts. In general, the local health authorities warn the person who traveled with a positive and ask them to respect the quarantine. Here too: the ideal would be to do a swab right away, but these days, with very crowded drive-ins, it’s not so obvious to get tested. The alternative is to go to a private center to do the antigen (quick swab); the private laboratory, in case of positivity, will send the sample to a public analysis center for confirmatory molecular examination (at least this is the procedure foreseen in Lazio).
Last updated: 17:01 © REPRODUCTION RESERVED
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