COVID fatigue frustrates some contact tracing efforts, health officials say – WMUR Manchester

Public health officials said Thursday that COVID fatigue is creeping into the Granite State, making people who might have been exposed to the coronavirus reluctant to curtail their activities.>> Download the free WMUR appOfficials said they’re beginning to note some negative reactions when their contact tracers are making calls. They said the negative reactions are coming from a small minority of the people they contact, but the problem is growing.They said it can be particularly bad for people who need to quarantine due to an immediate family member contracting COVID-19.”Because their last date of exposure was the last day that person was infectious, so they could be in quarantine for a long period of time and even longer than the person who had COVID-19, so it’s just very difficult and challenging,” said Beth Daly, chief of the Bureau of Infectious Disease Control. “So we just want people to hang in there and stick with our guidance working with us to make sure we’re not allowing for spread of COVID-19 in our communities.”Gov. Chris Sununu is asking for patience, but he acknowledged it can be hard when no end is in sight.”The vaccine’s going to be the first giant hurdle, and until we really get there, I don’t know if there will be a lot of confidence that the end is really in sight,” Sununu said.In the more immediate future, Sununu is watching the increased alert in Boston for community spread of coronavirus.”Mayor (Marty) Walsh is putting Boston in a red zone, so we kind of look at, OK, what does that mean?” Sununu said. “I think overall in Massachusetts, the numbers have been fairly stable, similar to New Hampshire. I think they might have ticked up a little bit, as expected. Boston is really the higher concentration right now in a lot of those areas, so we watch it very, very closely.”The state is also touting a major increase in the availability of rapid testing. Health officials said the reliability of those machines is at a point where rapid tests will now be immediately added as confirmed cases on the state dashboard, rather than waiting for confirmation from a PCR test.

Public health officials said Thursday that COVID fatigue is creeping into the Granite State, making people who might have been exposed to the coronavirus reluctant to curtail their activities.

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Officials said they’re beginning to note some negative reactions when their contact tracers are making calls. They said the negative reactions are coming from a small minority of the people they contact, but the problem is growing.

They said it can be particularly bad for people who need to quarantine due to an immediate family member contracting COVID-19.

“Because their last date of exposure was the last day that person was infectious, so they could be in quarantine for a long period of time and even longer than the person who had COVID-19, so it’s just very difficult and challenging,” said Beth Daly, chief of the Bureau of Infectious Disease Control. “So we just want people to hang in there and stick with our guidance working with us to make sure we’re not allowing for spread of COVID-19 in our communities.”

Gov. Chris Sununu is asking for patience, but he acknowledged it can be hard when no end is in sight.

“The vaccine’s going to be the first giant hurdle, and until we really get there, I don’t know if there will be a lot of confidence that the end is really in sight,” Sununu said.

In the more immediate future, Sununu is watching the increased alert in Boston for community spread of coronavirus.

“Mayor (Marty) Walsh is putting Boston in a red zone, so we kind of look at, OK, what does that mean?” Sununu said. “I think overall in Massachusetts, the numbers have been fairly stable, similar to New Hampshire. I think they might have ticked up a little bit, as expected. Boston is really the higher concentration right now in a lot of those areas, so we watch it very, very closely.”

The state is also touting a major increase in the availability of rapid testing. Health officials said the reliability of those machines is at a point where rapid tests will now be immediately added as confirmed cases on the state dashboard, rather than waiting for confirmation from a PCR test.

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