OLYMPIA — Officials from the Washington State Department of Health covered a range of topics at its weekly news briefing, including its new method of calculating COVID-19 positivity rates and its opposition to new CDC guidance on testing.
The CDC came out with new guidance which said it may not be necessary to test close contacts of infected people if they’re asymptomatic. State Health Officials expressed disappointment at the guidance and argued it sends the wrong message.
“I think it’s unfortunate that it may have confused and clouded the message,” said Charissa Fotinos, deputy chief medical officer of the state Health Care Authority, who leads the statewide testing effort.
The new CDC guidance stems from data that suggests that it generally takes five to six days after exposure for the virus to be detectable, according to Fotinos. If you test too early, testing can produce false negative results.
However, Washington continues to recommend that all close contacts of a person with COVID-19 should be tested, whether they exhibit symptoms or not, and quarantine, Fotinos said.
“Even if you get tested and you test negative, you still could be infected and that virus is still incubating, and you need to wait the full 14 days before you return to normal activity,” said DOH Health Secretary John Wiesman.
State data changes
The DOH data dashboard will now display the total number of tests administered, rather than the number of individuals tested. In the past, even if a person was tested multiple times, only one test would be counted.
The current rate of testing is about 13,000 tests per day, a rate that’s been steady since July, state data show.
Wiesman said the previous metric was undercounting the actual amount of testing, especially among groups such as essential workers who are tested on a regular basis.
The new methodology takes a more precise snapshot of testing volume and positivity rates day by day, Wiesman said.
“If we are really trying to get a sense of a point in time, of the people we are testing on this day what percent are testing positive, if we just throw out some of the negative tests because people have tested [positive] at another point in time, that really artificially inflates our positivity rates.”
The new method will allow easier county comparisons, according to Fotinos.
“It allows us to get a more localized look at testing rates, and if there are parts of the state or communities that are underrepresented or seemingly underrepresented in their access to testing, then that gives us a signal to say we should take a closer look and ensure that testing is equitable across the state,” she said.
