August 17, 2022
Kirksville, MO – As the number of reported COVID-19 cases continues to fall in Adair County and throughout the country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has updated its guidance for protecting your health and others during the ongoing pandemic.
The seven-day count of newly reported cases of COVID-19 in Adair County fell from 55 to 48 from Aug. 9 through Aug. 15. Nationally, the moving seven-day average of daily new cases fell from 120,151 to 103,614.
If you know you have been exposed to COVID-19 or have been notified that you have been exposed, the CDC’s streamlined recommendations still call for taking immediate precautions. However, immediate quarantine is no longer the CDC’s recommendation.
The CDC recommends that you start wearing a high-quality mask on the day you know you have been exposed. The day of exposure is the critical factor in the new guidelines, not the day you find out you were exposed. The day you were exposed is Day 0 and the day after exposure is Day 1. You should wear a high-quality mask at all times when around others in your home or indoors in public to protect those around you from exposure through Day 10. If someone around you is particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, such as the elderly, immunocompromised, or those who have cancer, diabetes, respiratory issues, and other health conditions, you should take greater precautions. These would include always maintaining at least six feet of distance from them even while wearing a mask or completely avoiding sharing indoor space with them.
If you begin to experience any symptoms of COVID-19, you should isolate immediately and follow the CDC’s isolation guidelines.
If you do not experience any symptoms, on Day 6, you should take a home COVID-19 test or schedule one with your healthcare provider. If you test negative, you should continue to monitor symptoms through Day 10 before discontinuing these precautions. That is because you can develop COVID-19 for up to 10 days after exposure.
What has not changed is the CDC’s recommendation that everyone become fully vaccinated and boosted to protect themselves against severe disease, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19. The Adair County Health Department continues to administer Pfizer COVID19 vaccines and boosters. Vaccines are administered to those ages 12 and older on Tuesdays from 2 to 4 p.m., and to those ages 5 through 11 on Thursdays from 3 to 5:30 p.m. The Health Department is now administering the Pfizer vaccine to children ages 6 months to 4 years old from 9 to 11 a.m. on Thursdays.
To schedule an appointment for the appropriate dose of vaccine or booster, or if you have questions regarding the timing of primary vaccines and booster doses, call the Adair County Health Department at 660-665-8491.
