As of Wednesday, Butte County has 55 total cases of COVID-19. The county also reported its first coronavirus-related death this week.
NSPR’s Marc Albert spoke with Lisa Almaguer, communications manager for Butte County Public Health, about a recent uptick in positive cases and the county’s ongoing efforts to mitigate the spread of the virus.
Here are highlights from their conversation. You can also listen at the top of the page.
Interview Highlights
On the recent increase in cases in Butte County
We have seen an increase in cases over the past few weeks. Of course, there's some concern. At the same time, we did expect to see more cases as testing has greatly expanded in our county. And also with reopening and more people coming together and moving about throughout the community, we expected to see some more community transmission. And so we are continuing to work on strong containment efforts here.
We have a strong investigation and contact tracing team. And we have increased the amount of contact tracers that we have, and this was a requirement from the governor. I wouldn't even say that we're utilizing or needing to utilize all of the additional tracers that we've added to the team. But we do have them there if and when we do need to put them into action.
On the Mother’s Day church service where people were exposed to COVID-19
The Mother's Day service had closer to 160 attendees. We learned that more accurate number after we started our investigation. And so we've only linked two lab confirmed COVID-19 persons to the gathering. That doesn't mean that there couldn't be more. We worked very closely with the organization leader, and we weren't able to have all of the attendees contact public health, so we're uncertain if they all have been tested.
But of course, anyone in the county who gets tested, if they have a positive COVID-19 test result, the Public Health Department is notified, and then we are able to make direct contact with that infected person so we can help them safely isolate, so we can interview them, and then find out who their close contacts were during the time when they were infectious. And then we can do our contact tracing and reach out to those folks that may have been exposed and provide them the necessary information to self quarantine, what to look for, what to do if they become symptomatic, etc. And that all works to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Butte County.
On where the new cases were transmitted
We know for certain that there's community transmission throughout Butte County, not just in the Oroville area, but Chico and Gridley and in other smaller areas in our county. And recently we have seen an increase in people testing positive who are asymptomatic or not experiencing symptoms. And this is because they may have presented at the hospital or medical facility for a reason unrelated to COVID-19, and for one reason or another, they were tested and they were positive and were unaware of their infection.
So, asymptomatic transmission tells us that wearing a face covering when you leave your home is very important. Someone can transmit the virus even if they're not experiencing symptoms. So, Marc, I wear a face covering to protect you. And I hope you wear a face covering to protect me when you go out into the public for essential activity or, these days now to visit a restaurant or a retail shop or even the grocery store.
On asymptomatic, positive cases
Some people can be asymptomatic throughout the duration of their illness, and some people could be asymptomatic, could have the virus, and depending on when they were tested, they could test positive and then let's just say the next day their symptoms started. We're still learning, and the reason that we know that some of these cases were asymptomatic is by doing that investigation and that interview with a person when we find out that they are a positive COVID-19 case.
On whether the county feels like they’ve dodged a bullet by containing the spread from recent cases
I think that there's a lot that we don't know. We continue to learn. And as soon as I say we dodged a bullet, then something will happen and we haven't dodged that bullet. So I don't feel confident saying that. I do feel confident saying that Butte County Public Health has excellent contract tracers. We have experience in this. We did it before a year ago with our measles outbreak, and we do it for other illnesses throughout the year, depending on what's happening.
And I want to thank the community for everyone taking the actions that they need to take to prevent the spread of illness: washing their hands often, not touching their face, staying home if they're sick, wearing a cloth face covering. And then businesses for being diligent about implementing the guidance that is provided not only by the county but the state in order to safely reopen.
On testing in Butte County
There is increased testing availability in Butte County, and most of that testing is free to anyone who would like to get tested. We've recently added new information on the Butte County Public Health website.
We have the OptumServe community testing site — that is the state's testing in Chico. That is free to anyone who wants to get tested, no symptoms required, no doctor referral required. They will take your insurance. However, there's no out-of-pocket pay. They also take uninsured, undocumented and people experiencing homelessness. It is a pre-registration process, so you must go online to register.
And then CVS Pharmacy in Chico and Oroville is offering a drive-through — also an online registration process. It's a supervised self-testing. So you drive through, they provide you the swab and they instruct you as to how to collect your specimen. There's a testing specialist there with you and they walk you through the process so it's quick, easy and free.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. Click the “play” button to listen to the entire interview.
