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COVID-19 testing availability adjusts with CDC guidelines

Posted at 7:38 PM, Apr 01, 2020
and last updated 2020-04-01 23:14:27-04

LEE'S SUMMIT, MO — For weeks, Kelsey Miller did not feel well. She developed a cough, then a fever and eventually had trouble breathing.

“I’ve never felt my heart like that before, so I was concerned,” the Lee’s Summit woman told 41 Action News.

Miller told 41 Action News she went to the emergency room thinking she would test positive for the novel coronavirus. But Miller said she did not qualify for a test. She told 41 Action News doctors advised her to quarantine at home as if she was presumptive positive.

“Being in Kansas City, we watch the news and hear about Italy and China and New York," Miller said. "It’s not just in those places. It’s here."

With Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines changing, the availability for COVID-19 testing also has changed. Initially, only people who visited certain countries and presented specific symptoms were eligible for testing. Today, doctors at St. Luke’s Health Care System have more flexibility in who they test.

“The criteria of what we are using to test is typically on what your risk factors are for if you were to develop severe disease,” Dr. Marc Larsen said.

People who have coronavirus symptoms and work in the health care setting, are first responders, immune-compromised or have known or confirmed exposure to patients with COVID-19 are likely to be given tests, according to Larsen.

“Those people have potentially worse outcomes,” Larsen said. “[We want to] identify that earlier so when people do come into the hospital and are admitted, we are already prepared and know who those people are so we can isolate them or start treatment on them a little sooner than later.”

The hospital’s main objective, he said, is to help treat patients while preventing the spread of the virus.

“For the most part, this is spread by droplets," Larsen said. "If someone coughs or sneezes, these droplets are spread, but gravity affects them and they drop down about six feet. That can live on the surfaces. It can live on doorknobs, tables, that’s why hand hygiene is so important.”