Our goal is to keep people healthy who have tested positive for COVID-19 in Kittitas County. But what does that look like, especially with all of the jargon like quarantine, isolation, disease investigation, and contact tracing?
Staying home when you are sick! We don’t expect you to know the difference between isolation and quarantine, but we want you to stay at home. We do not want someone who has COVID-19 and is contagious to leave the house. People should also stay home when they have been tested for COVID-19 (until they have test results) or have had close contact with someone who is sick with COVID-19. Staying home is one of the most important things you can do.
When we work with someone who is positive for COVID-19, our main concern is that the individual is feeling o.k. We want to ensure that they have personal care, access to food and medicine, and that they are able to keep the people in their household healthy and safe. The Kittitas County Incident Management Team ensures that every person who is positive with COVID-19 gets a phone call every day while they are sick to make sure that their needs are met.
When we call, we will never ask you for your social security number. When we do ask other questions, it is because it is the best way to identify people who have potentially contracted COVID-19 and keep them from unknowingly passing the virus to others. We ask that anyone being contacted help us by following a few simple steps: answer the call, respond to the questions, and follow our guidance.
We know that people who have a positive COVID-19 test result are almost always worried that they have unknowingly spread COVID-19 to others. We often hear concerns that someone who is ill in the home is worried about infecting the people they love. Our response is to provide information and referrals to resources to make sure that everyone in the household can stay safe. In situations where someone in the household is at high risk, or there are other reasons why it is unsafe to stay home, we are able to provide access to resources so that the person who is positive for COVID-19 can safely stay in a hotel or other location until they are well again. We do this through valuable partnerships with other community organizations and businesses.
If you have questions about your health, please contact your healthcare provider or you can call the Temporary COVID Clinic at KVH at 509-933-8850. If you are having a medical emergency, call 911 or go to the Emergency Department at KVH. If you have general questions about COVID-19, please call the EOC at 509-933-8315 or 509-933-8305.
Kittitas County, from the Cascades to the Columbia, and online at http://www.co.kittitas.wa.us.
