PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Patty Keogh of Lake Clark Shores waited 15 days to find she didn’t have COVID-19.
“Every day I worried about it because I wasn’t sure,” Keogh said. “You think about the contact tracing I think every day who I am near, who am I potentially infecting if I do have to go out.”
Keogh had her test done at a private urgent care center.
The Health Care District of Palm Beach County, which has several testing sites, says the wait on results from their sites can vary from 5-7 days to 7-9 days depending on the site.
“I think if someone is having symptoms such the fever, cough, then it would be important to isolate themselves while waiting for test results to come back,” said Dr. Charles Murphy at Jupiter Medical Center.
As the test numbers come in, Dr. Murphy says medical professionals are keeping a close eye on the positivity rate.
“It’s essentially the percent of a hundred patients that have a positive test,” Dr. Murphy said.
Currently Florida has a statewide positivity rate just over 10%, a number Dr. Murphy says does indicate a significant outbreak, “The number trending down would be a good thing and you like to see those numbers be at 5 percent or so and certainly Florida and other states will tell us that positivity rate is the one number to help them with best choices for reopening.”
