Berrien County has passed the 1,000 case mark with COVID-19. Berrien County Health Department spokesperson Gillian Conrad tells WSJM News it’s an unfortunate milestone to mark as the county sees more younger patients getting the illness. She notes the county’s hospitals are doing fine, nowhere near their surge capacity, but asks young people to be cautious.
“While younger people may not require hospitalization with severe illness or be at higher risk for death, they can absolutely spread it to those who do fall into high risk categories,” Conrad said.
Conrad notes one recent problem the health department has run into is that it’s taking longer to get COVID-19 test results.
“In some cases it’s taking almost a week for our lab results to come back. This is extremely frustrating for the public health department as we know that our contact tracing efforts are significantly showed when we’re not able to identify those positive cases quickly.”
The reason for the delay in test results is that many more tests are being done and overwhelming the labs. Conrad says it’s harder to get someone to self-quarantine when they have to wait so long for their results. She also notes the percentage of tests that come back positive in Berrien County remains just under 4%, indicating community spread. The Berrien County Health Department sees the most transmission happening at gatherings like birthday and graduation parties.
