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Summit County officials adopt CDC’s guidance on shorter COVID-19 quarantines

A medical technician handles a COVID-19 test at the Silverthorne drive-thru testing site Nov. 20. The testing site will be moving to the Centurylink building in Silverthorne to accommodate for cold weather.
Photo by Jason Connolly / Jason Connolly Photography

Summit County and state officials have adopted new national guidance that allows for the duration of a novel coronavirus quarantine to be shortened.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the new guidance Wednesday, Dec. 2, indicating that the length of a quarantine can be shortened in the following situations:

  • If a person has not shown symptoms and receives a negative test result, they can be released after Day 7 of quarantine
  • If a person has not developed any symptoms, they can be released after Day 10 of quarantine

Although a 7- to 10-day quarantine is now an option for people who have been exposed to the virus, Summit County officials maintain that it’s safest to quarantine for the full 14 days.



At a Summit County Board of Health meeting Thursday, Dec. 3, Public Health Director Amy Wineland said it’s uncommon for people to develop symptoms seven days after being exposed.

“We know that it’s really minimal after Day 7 that people would actually show symptoms after being exposed,” she said. “So it’s great that the CDC has come up with this new guidance.”



Wineland added that the new guidance benefits workers throughout the county.

“It’s gonna help businesses a lot,” she said. “(It will) help businesses continue to support people to stay home when they’re sick but also it doesn’t deplete people’s paid time off.”

Because people can still be asymptomatic, they are expected to continue to monitor their symptoms after their quarantine is over. Additionally, the county is expecting businesses to continue requiring employees to complete symptom screenings.

Testing changes

At the meeting, County Manager Scott Vargo said the drive-thru testing site in Silverthorne and the Vail Health site in Frisco will be moving locations in the coming weeks.

The Vail Health site, which is located at the Old Community Center on Third Avenue in Frisco, will move to the Speakeasy Movie Theatre at 103 S. Harris St. in Breckenridge. Vargo said the tentative date for the move is Dec. 11.

The goal with the move is to bring testing to all parts of the county and increase use of the Vail Health site, which has been the least busy of all three testing sites in the county.

Because of cold weather, the Silverthorne site, which is at the Silverthorne Recreation Center’s overflow parking lot, will be moving to the CenturyLink building at 591 Bighorn Circle in Silverthorne. There isn’t an official date for the site to move.

“It’s been a challenge to have a drive-thru testing site here in the mountains with the elements that we have,” Wineland said.

Wineland said she’s also been working to get the Silverthorne site, which is scheduled to close Jan. 1, extended into March.

“We know that that site has actually kind of become a regional testing site for our neighboring counties,” she said. “So there’s a lot of benefits and good justification to keep that site going here in Summit County to prevent people from having to go to Denver.”

 

How to get tested in Summit County

The following places offer testing for the virus in Summit County:

• Centura Health’s Centers for Occupational Medicine in Frisco: Testing available daily by appointment at the Vista Professional Building. To schedule an appointment, call 970-668-5584.

• State testing in Silverthorne: Drive-thru testing available from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily at 464-478 E. Fourth St. in the overflow parking lot by the Silverthorne Recreation Center. No appointment, insurance or identification is required to be tested. Testing at the Silverthorne site will be available through Dec. 30.

• Vail Health testing in Frisco: Testing is available by appointment from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Old Community Center, 110 Third Ave. To book an appointment, email summitcovidtesting@vailhealth.org including name, phone number, a copy of photo ID and front and back copies of a health insurance card.

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