MLHS Only Testing Symptomatic Patients

MLHS only testing symptomatic people

by Mary Rains

Mille Lacs Health System

11.4.20

Mille Lacs Health System wants to remind people in our area that the facility in Onamia is not testing for COVID-19 unless a person has symptoms.

“We are a small, rural facility and because our testing capacity is limited in that regard, we are asking patients to only call our COVID Nurse Hotline if they are experiencing symptoms,” said Kim Kucera, MLHS COO and Incident Commander for the coronavirus response team. “We are seeing a sharp increase in cases in our county and also in our area, and we need our resources to take care of the people who are ill with this disease.”

Kucera wants people to know that MLHS is only testing right now on the Onamia campus; the outlying family clinics are not doing these tests. Please do not come to a clinic expecting to be tested. The MLHS COVID Nurse Hotline is: 320-532-2989.

The COVID Nurse Hotline is designed to screen patients for symptoms and then lead them to a testing opportunity at the Onamia facility. But the hotline is being jammed right now with people who think they may have been exposed to COVID, yet do not have symptoms. While this may be the case (you can have the virus but have no symptoms) the MLHS facility is currently only able to test people who are symptomatic. 

If you have been exposed to a positive person, you more than likely will be called by a contact tracer. But in the meantime, or if you are not called, what can you do if you have been exposed to COVID-19? The CDC says this:
 

• Stay home for 14 days after your last contact with a person who has COVID-19.
• Watch for fever (100.4◦F), cough, shortness of breath, or other symptoms of COVID-19.
• If possible, stay away from others, especially people who are at higher risk for getting very sick from COVID-19.

Quarantine or isolation: What's the difference? Quarantine keeps someone who might have been exposed to the virus away from others, preventing spread of disease that can occur before a person knows they are sick or if they are infected with the virus without feeling symptoms. Islolation keeps someone who is infected with the virus away from others, even in their home.

People in quarantine should stay home, separate themselves from others, monitor their health, and follow directions from their state or local health department.