COVID-19 Testing for Healthcare Facility Workers
Updated 08/3/20, 10 p.m.
Important Contacts
Sedgwick County Disease Reporting Hotline 316-660-5555
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No cost COVID-19 testing for any healthcare employee, with or without symptoms Dial (316) 660-1022, Sedgwick County Health Department Report that you work in a healthcare facility.
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Personal Protective Equipment https://www.sedgwickcounty.org/emergency-management/ppe-resource-request/ Submit the completed form to logistics@sedgwick.gov.
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N95 Decontamination (316) 660-1190 |
Due to increased testing supplies and the capacity to sample more residents, the Sedgwick County Health Department is expanding the criteria for COVID-19 testing which will assist in tracking and controlling the spread of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
The expanded criteria include workers who aid and treat people who are sick or who work in group living situations. These front-line workers, who will be tested with or without symptoms, include:
- Healthcare workers (clinic, home health, hospice, hospital, long-term care facility)
- First responders (EMS, Fire)
- Law enforcement
- Direct Support Professionals
- People who work in residential group settings such as detention facilities, residential schools, and group homes
Guidance:
- To receive a no cost test, dial (316) 660-1022, Sedgwick County Health Department (SCHD) and tell the SCHD call center you work in a healthcare facility.
- A Sedgwick County Health Department staff member will ask you questions and make an appointment for you at the drive-through clinic, 620 North Edgemoor, Wichita. Sampling for COVID-19 testing is performed Monday through Friday mornings by appointment only. Sampling and testing are offered at no cost.
- If you have symptoms, do not go to work until test results are returned.
- Always practice good hygiene and social distancing. Stay away from others while sick.
- If you do not have symptoms, you can go to work until test results are returned.
- While waiting for test results, practice good hygiene and social distancing. Wear a face covering, face mask, or respirator and other personal protective equipment (PPE) as appropriate for your job.
- After sampling, Sedgwick County Health Department staff will contact you with your results within one week.
- If you have symptoms AND
- Test results are negative, stay home according to your facility’s policies for general illness. Usually, this is when fever-free for at least 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication.
- Test results are positive, stay home isolated from others until 72 hours (per KDHE Guidance) after symptoms stop or 10 days after symptoms start – whichever is longer.
- If you do not have symptoms AND
- Test results are negative, continue with good hygiene and social distancing. Wear a face covering, face mask, or respirator and other personal protective equipment (PPE) as appropriate for your job.
- Test results are positive, stay home isolated from others until 10 days after test date.
- Healthcare facility staff should be tested:
- When they have symptoms
- If any contact occurs with someone testing positive for COVID-19 (including 48 hours before symptoms onset) when staff does not wear a mask or respirator
- When COVID-19 transmission occurs in the facility
- Healthcare facility staff should consider being tested every week, especially if frequent exposures to people with COVID-19 symptoms.
- Patient samples obtained by the Health Department are for a molecular virus test that detects coronavirus particles in a person’s body. This is not an antibody test that tests for immunity.
- People with no symptoms could test negative or positive. They could not be infected (negative test), be infected without symptoms (positive test), or have a virus level too low for the test to detect (false negative test).
- The virus test is for a point in time. A person can be negative on one day but a later test may be positive.
- If an exposure to a confirmed COVID case occurs, healthcare workers are in quarantine for 14 days from last exposure to a COVID-19 case. They are tested by their healthcare provider or by dialing (316) 660-1022 and stating they are a contact of a COVID-19 case.
- Healthcare, public health, and law enforcement workers may work during quarantine if asymptomatic as long as appropriate PPE and other precautions are taken.
- If asymptomatic and working, testing should be done every seven days (weekly). Employees must monitor for symptoms twice per day, even if testing is negative. Quarantine continues for 14 days even if testing is negative.
- If symptoms develop, the employee cannot be at work and must be tested.
- If an employee does not work, they should be tested seven days after exposure to increase the likelihood of the test detecting the virus if the person is infected. During quarantine, a person who tests negative must still remain in quarantine for 14 days from last exposure to a COVID-19 case.
- Symptoms of COVID-19 can include one or more of the following: fever, cough, recent decrease in the ability to breathe, upper respiratory symptoms (congestions, runny nose), chills or shivering, tiredness, muscle or body aches, headache, sore throat, sudden loss of smell or taste, diarrhea without a known cause.
- COVID-19 symptoms are a new symptom or an increase in severity of something that a person normally experiences.
- COVID-19 should be considered when a person experiences these symptoms outside of their normal. For example, a person who has allergies with a runny nose every spring would not consider a runny nose a COVID-19 symptom without any other outside-of-normal symptoms.
- Be aware that older adults can show atypical COVID-19 symptoms. It is important to recognize any symptoms that could indicate coronavirus infection and to test right away.
- Older adults infected with coronavirus may not have fever.
- They may display headache, diarrhea, loss of smell and/or taste, confusion, sore throat, or runny nose.
- Respiratory symptoms, if they occur, may be delayed.