Officials confirmed the first case of COVID-19 in Haines on Monday. Now it’s up to public health nurses to track and contain the deadly virus.
(CDC/ Alissa Eckert, MS; Dan Higgins, MAMS)
When state public health nurse Elaine Hickey found out there was a confirmed positive coronavirus case in Haines, her first task was to call the patient.
“We go through a whole process and series of conversations,” she said.
The process is called contact tracing. It means to find, quarantine, and monitor everyone who has come in contact with the disease. It can help officials find the source and stop the spread.
“We go through questions asking what someone’s activity was for fourteen days prior to becoming symptomatic and ill because that is the time frame that we look at to determine where that person possibly became infected from,” said Hickey.
Hickey asks all of the patient’s contacts to quarantine for fourteen days since their last encounter with the patient. The state asks all contacts to get tested, but cannot force anyone to do so.
Hickey has already reached out to all of the Haines contacts. She said the list was short.
“The person who did test positive was doing everything that had been asked of him by the state and following guidelines very, very well… He has been staying home and, you know, social distancing and practicing great hygiene and masking,” she said.
The Haines patient is in isolation at home, but a nurse checks in on his status every day—by phone. No contact. Public health nurses also call anyone on the contact list and all their household members to find out whether or not they have symptoms.
If any of the contacts tests positive for COVID-19, Hickey will track all of their contacts as well.
The Haines patient had not been traveling, which suggests a community case. Hickey said a community case means the disease has circulated in the community. It is risky because health officials don’t know the source of the disease.
“So when we don’t know where it could be in the community, then that’s when you have to be more diligent about wearing your masks, hand washing, hygiene practices, social distancing,” she said.
The case is now with the State’s Department of Epidemiology. Their job is to find the source of the infection. Department officials told KHNS the Haines case is still under investigation.
The case was reported on Monday. The unnamed Haines man had coronavirus symptoms and went in for a test on June 3. The positive result came back from an Anchorage lab four days later. The man did not have symptoms that warranted a rapid test (those are only given if the patient needs immediate medical attention inside the clinic).
Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium has tested 320 people in Haines. COVID-19 testing is available in Haines to all patients who exhibit symptoms. SEARHC is not testing asymptomatic people at this time. Appointments for tests can be made by calling 766-6300.
