The Van Buren/Cass District Health Department is seeing too many new cases of COVID-19 and too many contacts among those patients to be able to continue contact tracing with all of them. It says those who contract COVID should notify their own close contacts and tell them to self-isolate. Meanwhile, the department says it’s going to focus efforts on containing potential outbreaks. It will continue case investigation and contact tracing in nursing homes, hospitals, and schools as well as in clusters identified as priority, like high-risk settings. It’s also assisting businesses with COVID-related issues. The Van Buren/Cass District Health Department reminds everyone a close contact includes people you have been within 6 feet of for a total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period starting 2 days before your symptoms began. For COVID-positive patients without symptoms, it should be 2 days prior to when your test sample was collected. The department is also offering patients isolation or quarantine letters to give to their employers.
