Kristin Hills
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mendocino County resident Kristin Hills worked remotely, wore a mask, and seriously practiced social distancing. In the interest of using the Mendocino County virus testing apparatus, Hills volunteered to be tested in June and, within a week, was notified that he had tested positive for the virus. What happened from there, from quarantine to tracing contacts to publicly display themselves as having the virus, provides insight into the efforts of a rural public health agency to build a bulwark against the advancing tide of the pandemic. global COVID-19 on county shores. .
Hills rigidly followed pandemic protocols to “protect others more than me.” She described wearing masks in public places, keeping a distance of six feet from others, and using hand sanitizer and hand washing after venturing into public places. Hills generally refrained from small, outdoor public gatherings, one-on-one visits with friends, and two Ukiah Black Lives Matter events. She behaved with the Public Health mantra in mind: “Act as if you have it and it could infect others.”
Hills identified pandemic protocols that were difficult to manage: keeping consistent bubbles at home / social / work. She described her spouse and children working hard to maintain their physical interactions with a select few, but found that her stable group of households soon expanded to 15 people.
On June 7, Hills attended one of the Ukiah Black Lives Matter rallies. Later that week, acting for “good health practice and good civil duty,” she signed up for a test appointment. The first appointment he was able to attend was on June 23. With the trial nearly two weeks away, Hills continued to work remotely and help manage her home. Around June 15, she described having a mild sore throat throughout the week. She said, “My symptoms were so mild that I honestly didn’t even notice the slight numbness of taste / smell until I found out it was positive on June 30.” Upon learning of the positive tests for the virus, Hills said, “I was retroactively trying to reconstruct my symptoms.”
Hills feels “pretty sure I didn’t hire him at Black Lives Matter events because of symptom onset, event date (6/7) and my exam date (6/23), and my others actions that have been in line with the public health order. ” He assumes that “I got it by buying, but I could potentially have received it from someone in my capsule at home (although I was the first to experience any symptoms), particularly since one of our members was working in customer service.” For that to be plausible, however, they would have had to be asymptomatic. “
Seven days after a swab was inserted into the sinus cavity inside an ad-hoc medical facility located in a multipurpose room at the fair, Hills received an email informing him that he tested positive for the virus. When she received the news, she described being “surprised” and feeling “worried about my family and anyone else I had been in contact with.”
Hills contacted Mendocino County Public Health before they contacted her. While checking your email the early morning of June 30, you noticed an email from LHI / OptumServe with the positive result of your test. At 9:00 a.m. that morning, Hills contacted her employer and Public Health to report the positive test.
[The email Hills received]
Hills immediately said Public Health “worked with me on my symptoms and contact tracing and gathered information from all my friends and family.” Hills described that “there are 6 other people living with me (three part-time overnight) and a total of 15 people in our ‘quaran team’, which includes the families of three teens and young adults who have been here overnight . ”
After consulting with Public Health to assist in tracing contacts, Hills was ordered to isolate July 1-3, for a total of 10 days after her positive test. Hills said her immediate family was quarantined until July 7, 14 days after her positive test, “and therefore, 14 days after coming in contact with a positive COVID case.” Mendocino County Public Health requested that all members of the Quaran de Hills team be screened.
Public Health also ordered the Hills family to undergo testing at Ukiah’s OptumServe site on June 30. Hills said they simply “showed up,” and staff at the site said the tests would be processed through the University of California, San Francisco because “the results were expected faster.” In about five days. Hill said Public Health from Mendocino County “did nothing to facilitate” the test. After nine days and being “incredibly persistent,” they were contacted and told that all results were negative, except that one was “lost.” While waiting for the test, Hills said her family chose to “remain under quarantine as a precautionary measure to protect our community at this time, without the direction of Public Health.”
Reflecting on his experience within the Mendocino County public health apparatus, he described the county public health staff as “patient, kind and interested in my experience.” Hills ended up talking to “Ukiah officials as well as LHI / OptumServe people in Ukiah, and even Wisconsin and Florida as they followed and tried to get to the bottom of my family’s test results through UCSF.”
