Although a COVID-19 vaccine has reached Ohio, our OH Really? team is answering your questions about how positive cases are reported to county boards of health.
We received an anonymous question about whether family members of a person who tests positive are also counted as positive, even without a test. Dr. Kristin Englund, an infectious disease specialist with the Cleveland Clinic, says no.
"Cases that are reported to the county have to have a positive test, or have to have a clinician that states that this is very consistent with the coronavirus case. And then that would be reported as a 'probable' case, but not a positive case," Englund said. "We only report cases when there is a positive test. We do not count family members unless they have tested positive. They are used for tracing so that they know that they need to be quarantining and that they need to ultimately get tested if they are symptomatic. But the only cases that are used in statistics are clearly positive, laboratory-reported cases."
“OH Really?” is WKSU’s podcast which makes you part of the reporting process. Ask your question here:
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