CHENANGO COUNTY – As cases vary throughout Chenango County, health department officials ask that residents answer contact tracer calls and await reports from their office before calling.

According to Chenango County Public Health Director of Environmental Health and Code Enforcement Isaiah Sutton, the health department is fighting an uphill battle with the growing number of COVID-19 cases.

Sutton said as cases come in, the nursing division and tracer team have their hands full with filing reports and reaching out to individuals with potential coronavirus exposure.

“The first thing is, we will contact all positive patients that we receive reports for, but reports can sometimes take a couple days to reach our office,” said Sutton. “In a very small number of cases, cases are sent somewhere else due to typos or errors, and it takes longer to reach us.”

“Sometimes in these cases people will call the office and ask why they weren’t contacted first, but we’d ask that individuals give us a couple of days to reach out first before calling in.”

He said individuals calling in before a report has been processed slows down tracers, as they could be contacting individuals whose reports are finished. He added that another issue facing the tracer and nursing teams is individuals not answering phone calls.

“We really want folks to answer 518 numbers, public health, or contact tracer calls which should be displayed right on the caller ID,” said Sutton. “The sooner someone knows their potential risk of having been exposed, we can limit them from exposing others.”

“We have enough individuals who aren’t responding quickly to tracer calls where it is an issue.”

He said folks who require five or six phone calls before first contact are taking up a large portion of the tracer’s time.

Sutton said if someone believes that they have had a direct contact with someone who was exposed, they should quarantine for 10 days and await a report from tracers.

Sutton added that the people who understand these points will help slow the spread of the virus and decrease the strain on a tracer’s workload.

“Our nursing division is working seven days a week to keep people safe and informed,” he said.

He added that the Chenango County Nursing Division has released a number of tips that will help slow disease transmission, calm some individual fears, and ease some undue burden on our contact tracing team.

The nursing division said as case numbers continue to rise, they would like to provide some information that anyone who is exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 is asked to immediately self-isolate and be tested.

Testing sites near you may be found at ny.gov.

Anyone who is tested because they are symptomatic must self-isolate until test results are returned.

If a person tests positive, even if asymptomatic, they must continue or immediately begin self-isolation.

Nursing division representatives said their office does not receive results in real time and due to the surge in cases it may be 24-48 hours before you hear from our team. If it has been over 48hrs since you received your results and you have not been contacted please call 607-337-1660.

If you were not identified by the positive individual as a contact or if you have not had direct contact when the positive case was symptomatic, then you may not be contacted.

Additional information may be found at: www.coronavirus.health.ny.gov