April 25, 2022
UPDATED COVID REPORTING PRACTICES EFFECTIVE END OF DAY FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2022
Starting in January, the New York State Department of Health and their Virtual Call Center (VCC) assumed all responsibilities related to contact tracing and investigations of Steuben County COVID-19 positive cases. At the end of the business day on Friday, April 29, 2022 VCC will cease their operations for Steuben County and most of the state.
After the 29th, individuals who test positive for COVID-19 or are contacts to positives will not receive any text messages or calls from either NYS or Steuben County. Positives and contacts are still expected to follow NYS’ isolation and quarantine guidelines found at https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/isolation-quarantine.
“COVID-19 has been a part of our lives for more than two years now,” said Public Health Director, Darlene Smith. “Guidelines have remained stable over the last several months, making it more manageable for residents to know what they must do to protect themselves and others from continued spread if they are a positive or contact. Information is always available on our website and we encourage you to continue to download your isolation and quarantine orders.”
Individuals who test positive must remain at home for five days after symptom onset or after their test date if they do not have symptoms. If the positive has no symptoms or symptoms are resolving at the end of the fifth day, they may end their isolation as long as they can wear a well-fitted mask around others for five additional days. If they cannot wear a mask or are moderately to severely immunocompromised, they must remain isolated for 10 days after symptom onset or test date if asymptomatic.
Contacts of positives must quarantine for five days after the date of their most recent exposure to the positive if not up to date with their COVID-19 vaccination series. Quarantined contacts must also wear a well-fitted mask for an additional five days or should remain quarantined for 10 days if they are unable to wear a mask or are moderately to severely immunocompromised.
Contacts that are up to date with their COVID-19 vaccinations must wear a mask for 10 days after the most recent exposure date, but are not required to quarantine. It is recommended that all contacts get tested at the end of day five.
Self-service isolation and quarantine orders are available on Steuben County Public Health’s website for Steuben residents at https://www.steubencountyny.gov/publichealth. The orders are court documents and falsification or misuse of the orders are punishable by law.
CDC has an easy to use Quarantine and Isolation Calculator that asks a series of questions and explains the exact dates positives and contacts must remain at home or wear a mask: https://www.cdc.gov/…/your…/quarantine-isolation.html
Anyone who previously tested positive within the last 90 days is not considered a new case and is exempt from an additional isolation or quarantine.
Steuben residents who test positive using a home test can report their positive home test to Public Health at https://www.steubencountyny.gov/publichealth. A picture of the home test is needed. Once the information has been added to the home test reporting portal, self-service orders will be made available to the individual online.
