After Texas officials’ demands, CDC modifies protocols for coronavirus testing, releases
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has modified its protocols for releasing patients being evaluated for coronavirus.
After a quarantined patient tested positive following her release from a San Antonio health facility, Texas officials on Monday demanded stricter testing protocols and an explanation for the passenger’s release. They included Gov. Greg Abbott, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and John Hellerstedt, the commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services.
Robert Redfield, the director of the CDC, wrote in a Monday letter to Texas officials that, effective immediately, quarantined individuals who have shown symptoms will only be released if they undergo “two sequential negative tests within 24 hours” and no person will be released while test results are pending.
While the CDC’s modified protocols didn’t go as far as the three tests over 48 hours that Abbott had called for Monday, his office applauded the agency’s changes.
“Texas made several requests to strengthen the handling of possible coronavirus patients,” John Wittman, a spokesman for Abbott, wrote in a statement Tuesday. “In response the CDC, HHS, and the Administration worked swiftly and effectively to strengthen their standards and protocol before releasing patients who have been under quarantine.”
Passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship that was evacuated from Japan along with evacuees from Wuhan, China, have been quarantined and are being monitored and tested in San Antonio at the Lackland Air Force Base. More than 120 individuals from the cruise ship who had finished the 14-day quarantine period were set to be released Monday, but Texas officials requested they be held longer.
Nirenberg had called the CDC’s error “unacceptable” Sunday, and on Monday afternoon he declared a local state of disaster and public health emergency, and prevented quarantined evacuees from being released into the city. The city attorney’s office also sought a temporary restraining order to keep the quarantine in place for two more weeks, although it was denied by a federal judge, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
But after the CDC’s modified protocols Monday, the more than 120 evacuees from the Diamond Princess cruise ship will now be released.
“I’m pleased that the CDC has made changes, and I’m comfortable that the plan as presented will minimize the risk of exposure. The release will be coordinated, not prolonged over several days, and passengers will not stay in local hotels and will go directly to the airport,” Nirenberg said in a statement Tuesday.
Buses will transport the released passengers from Lackland Air Force Base directly to the airport for their flights or to drive rental cars home, according to a news release.
San Antonio’s Assistant City Manager Colleen Bridger stressed that the public’s risk remains low.
“I want to remind the community that these are individuals who showed no symptoms over the course of the 14-day quarantine. We owe it to our fellow Americans not to stigmatize them and allow them to go back to their homes and families,” Bridger said in a statement.
Passengers who have developed systems and tested positive remain in isolation until they meet CDC’s protocols for release, according to the news release. Eleven patients have tested positive for coronavirus and remain at the Texas Center for Infectious Disease in San Antonio, but Abbott stressed Monday all have “very mild cases” of the virus.
Currently, no known cases have originated in Texas, and patients being treated and monitored in San Antonio have been evacuated from affected areas overseas. In Travis County, at least one person is being tested for the virus, although there are no confirmed cases, according to the Austin American-Statesman.
Released patient
After being released and coming into contact with about a dozen people, the patient — who was an evacuee from Wuhan, China, where the virus was first detected — later tested positive for the virus and was returned to isolation, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
In response to Hellerstedt’s letter Monday morning to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the CDC, Redfield explained in a letter of his own that the released patient had met the criteria of showing no symptoms and two negative tests more than 24 hours apart, only to learn that a pending test turned out to be positive.
“Her first specimen was negative. Her second specimen, which was collected 24 hours later, was inconclusive,” Redfield wrote, going on to explain that an inconclusive result is neither positive nor negative, but requires another test.
“While waiting on the results from the third specimen, the Infectious Disease Response Unit at TCID collected a subsequent fourth specimen without knowledge of the CDC team at Lackland, “ Redfield wrote.
With the third test coming back negative, the patient was released. It was after her release that the fourth test came back positive and the patient was returned to isolation at the Texas Center for Infectious Disease in San Antonio, Redfield wrote.
Redfield stressed that a positive results does not mean a person is infectious, but that the CDC acts on such results to “assure that the person is isolated until evidence of negative tests.”
PRECAUTIONARY STEPS
Coronavirus symptoms can include fever, cough and shortness of breath, and it’s believed to mainly spread between people in close contact with one another or when an infected person coughs or sneezes nearby, according to the CDC.
Health officials have stressed that they still have more to learn about the emerging disease, for which there is no vaccine. Here are steps the CDC recommends people take to prevent exposure and illness:
- Avoid close contact with people who are sick, and stay home if you are sick.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth.
- Cover your coughs and sneezes with a tissue, and clean and disinfect surfaces.
- Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
- If showing symptoms, wear a facemask to help prevent the spread of the disease to others. A mask is not recommended for people who are well.
This story was originally published March 3, 2020 at 2:47 PM.
