Six days ago, there were 10 people under mandatory quarantine in Genesee County to help prevent the possible spread of coronavirus and today there are 21 people under mandatory quarantine.
Not all of the people who were part of that group of 10 are still under mandatory quarantine, according to the Health Department. Some of those people tested negative for COVID-19.
Nola Goodrich-Kresse, a public information officer for the Genesee/Orleans Health Department, said the exact number of people under mandatory quarantine who tested negative and were removed from quarantine is not available. We've never had an exact count of the number of people under mandatory quarantine who are also symptomatic. But everybody who is symptomatic and had contact with a known COVID-19 patient has been tested.
For some, results have not yet returned from one of the New York State labs.
If a person had direct contact with a confirmed COVID-19 patient, that person is placed, by order of the public health director, under mandatory quarantine.
Not everybody under mandatory quarantine is symptomatic.
In the current group of 21, not all necessarily had contact with the one known case in Genesee County.
Through contact tracing, multiple people were identified as possible direct contacts with that one positive case.
If they are not symptomatic, they must remain in quarantine for 14 days. If they remain symptom-free through that two-week period, they are released from quarantine.
People who tested negative but are ill are asked to avoid contact with other people because they might be contagious with another bug.
Swabs are sent to state labs by both the health department -- from those mandatory quarantines -- and from private providers, who don't have the authority to order mandatory quarantines but are expected to direct their patients to self-quarantine.
So far, there have been 44 negative test results for COVID-19 for residents of Genesee County. Goodrich-Kresse said there is no way to differentiate the source of those tests.
The health of the one person who tested positive is improving, according to health department officials.
For today's health department briefing, published earlier, click here.
