COVID-19 active cases explained

HAMILTON COUNTY, Tennessee – There are currently 1207 active cases in Hamilton county.

Dr. Paul Hendricks said a COVID-19 active case is a positive case still in isolation. A person is considered active usually for 10 days.

“Before they come out of isolation the fever needs to be gone for at least 24 hours and their symptoms need to be at least definitely improving most people will no longer be contagious after about 10 days,” said Hendricks.

Dr. Hendricks said 10 days can start from the moment someone shows symptoms.

“If you get symptomatic on Sunday and get tested on Tuesday, the 10-day count will be from Sunday. Now for the people who are asymptomatic and maybe they’ve been in contact or they have been exposed or just concerned and they get tested and they’re positive, but have no symptoms, then we have to start from the day they’re tested,” said Hendricks.

He said the isolation period is 10 days because of the research on how long the virus is infectious.

“Many people have done testing they’ve gone and study the virus to see if it grows and after about 10 days they find the number of people that they can find with active infections with the virus drops to pretty much is zero,” said Hendricks.

Dr. Hendricks said a positive test doesn’t mean you are still contagious.

“The problem is some people will continue to test positive for even weeks after their well because the test is for the genetic material.” Even though you’re no longer contagious sometimes the test will still pick up some leftover genetic material,” said Hendricks.