by Eugene Driscoll | Mar 14, 2020 8:15 pm

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Posted to: Ansonia, Derby, Seymour, Shelton, COVID-19 News & Announcements

DERBY — UPDATE MARCH 31, 2020: “As many as 25 percent of people infected with the new coronavirus may not show symptoms, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns — a startlingly high number that complicates efforts to predict the pandemic’s course and strategies to mitigate its spread.”

CLICK TO READ THIS UPDATE FROM THE NY TIMES.

Griffin Health said the unidentified physician who tested positive for COVID-19 was not contagious while seeing patients in his office, and had not seen patients for 24 hours before showing symptoms.

In simple terms:

The physician, who worked at an outpatient office (not Griffin Hospital itself) worked a shift.

The physician had the next day off.

At the end of his day off, the physician showed symptoms.

The fact the physician was not symptomatic while on duty and had not been in patient or staff contact is why public health officials determined that “no action is needed” regarding contacting the physicians’s patients or office staff, Griffin Health said in a statement Friday.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “people are thought to be most contagious when they are most symptomatic (the sickest).”

But the CDC also says “some spread might be possible before people show symptoms; there have been reports of this occurring with this new coronavirus, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.”

The decision to take no action regarding patients and staff was made by the state health department with the support of the local medical community.

The state health department is expected to track the contacts the physician had closer to the time he began experiencing symptoms. Specialists from the state determine the timeline, something they’ve been doing since Connecticut reported its first case of COVID-19 March 6.

The Valley Indy reached out to the state Health Department Friday and Saturday for additional information.

Dr. Frederick Browne, Chief Medical Officer and an Infectious Disease doctor at Griffin Hospital, said the COVID-19 data collected so far supports the state’s action.

“There is no indication that there is asymptomatic transmission, at this point,” Browne said. “There are questions about it, but it is more incidental data. The data is showing that people who have symptoms are shedding the virus, and therefore can pass the virus to other people.”

The physician did not work in Griffin Hospital itself, but at an outpatient office. Officials have not released which town he worked in. His age range and hometown have not been officially released.

The state Department of Health did not include any information about the Griffin Health physician in its Saturday COVID-19 update, the full text of which is available here (under ‘what’s new’).

Regarding virus infections, Browne noted there are differences between COVID-19 and the flu.

“People are confusing this virus versus the influenza virus,” Browne said. “It has been shown in studies that with the influenza virus, there is a clear period of time prior to getting symptoms that you are infectious. This is actually a completely different virus than influenza, so people’s data is getting skewed.”

Griffin Health released a statement Friday night to the media confirming that a physician had tested positive for COVID-19. The physician has been in voluntary quarantine.

“Not only was he not seeing patients when he was symptomatic, but he was also not seeing patients in the 24 hour period before showing symptoms,” Browne said.

Browne said a person’s body takes several actions when infected with a virus, including COVID-19, such as increasing temperature in an effort to kill the virus.

“The only reason your body would spike a fever when you have a virus is because there is a lot of virus in the body,” Browne said. “So when people are really sick and they have a cough and body ache and they

have a fever, that means they have a lot of virus in their body.”

At that point — the person is infectious, Browne said.

Quarantine is recommended for people who have been exposed to a person with COVID-19. The state Department of Health will conduct an investigation of the physician’s case and define the exposure time, along with who has been in close contact with the man.

The people who were in close contact will be quarantined for 14 days. This is the time frame in which a person can develop the infection after being exposed.

“You are not infectious at that point, but you are at risk of becoming infectious,” Browne said. “If you start to have symptoms, you are already isolated because you are at home and no one else can be exposed at that time.”

Please click this link for information from the CDC on COVID-19.