Submitted Photo The Chautauqua County Board of Health met over Zoom due to the high transmission rate of COVID cases in the community.

Chautauqua County health leaders see “personal responsibility” as the next step to defeating COVID-19.

During last week’s meeting of the county Board of Health, Breeanne Agett with the county Health Department noted that the influx of personal home test kits is forcing the county to use different ways to see how the virus is impacting the community.

She shared that it’s helpful for residents to report their positive cases. “From an epidemiological perspective, if I know how many cases there are in a community, I can calculate what’s called an infection rate, so I know how many cases we’re seeing in the population and not necessarily what percentage of tests were positive,” she said.

Still, she recognizes that not everyone will report their positive home test results, but Agett is glad the home test kits are available anyways. “At one point …… we had to approve a test. Anybody that was going to receive a COVID test, we had to say whether or not we felt that person should get tested and they had to go to very few settings to find a test. We’re coming to a point where people can get a test for free or they can go to Walmart and buy a test and that’s great,” she said.

She believes the home test kits can be helpful for people to take before they attend a family gathering or visit a senior citizen.

With positive cases, Agett noted that the state has done a lot of contract tracing for the county. The state is now prioritizing people who are under 18 or are over 70.

For anyone who is positive, the state is asking people to isolate for five days and, if their symptoms improve, they can mask for days six to 10.

Health Board member Dr. Tariq Khan noted that schools are still doing a lot of contract tracing. “God bless those school nurses and staff. They still have their sleeves rolled up and they are reaching out to the families and educating them and directing them to their primary care,” he said.

Health Board member Elisabeth Rankin, who is a Republican county legislator from Jamestown, said people who test positive should also contact people they know who may have been exposed. “People are kind of taking on their own responsibility,” she said.

Rankin recommended people go to covidtest.gov if they need a home test kit.

Agett said personal responsibility is key.

“Stay home if you’re sick,” she said. “If you test positive, isolate. If you report this to us, OK. You don’t have to, but if you are positive, make sure you notify your close contacts, your household contacts, anybody you might have been six feet of for 15 minutes or more in a 24 hour period.”

Agett said on the county’s website, www.chqgov.com, are isolation and quarantine documentations for people who need them for their employment.

Health Board member Dr. Robert Berke, who is the county physician, also emphasized the need for personal responsibility.

“We have to look out for each other as a community,” he said, adding that means wearing a mask in public, getting vaccinated and boostered, not sending children who test positive to school, and staying home from work if you test positive as well.

Berke agreed that it’s too difficult to monitor all the home tests. “We can’t count the beans anymore. There’s too many beans,” he said.

Bill Boria with the county Health Department said the county is starting up a wastewater monitoring program that will give a general indication of what COVID is doing in the community. Although it can’t say how many people are positive, it will be able to be used to see if COVID is increasing, decreasing or staying the same.