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Show A-10 The Park Record ‘I felt like I was in a movie’ Park City woman shares experience of COVID-19 test First testing site opens in county Officials: Shortage of tests is blunting response to virus ALEXANDER CRAMER The Park Record Molly Miller was up early Wednesday getting ready to head out to get tested for the pandemic sweeping the globe when her Prospector home started shaking. “I was kind of getting ready to get a COVID test when the earthquake hit,” Miller said. “I was quite taken aback.” A few hours later, Miller had been tested for the coronavirus in Salt Lake City and was driving back up the canyon feeling like a “huge weight” had been lifted off her shoulders. The previous week had given Miller rare insight into the systems that have been set up to try to combat the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, providing both highs and lows and leaving the Park City small-business owner with feelings of gratitude toward health care workers and a message for her fellow Parkites. “It’s a really overwhelming time for the community, and I think the more that we can be together while separated, the better we can be,” she said. “You know, it’s a scary time. A little bit of compassion goes a long way.” The story starts two weeks before the earthquake, a thousand miles away in San Diego. Miller was there for a social media and digital marketing conference, a trip she had debated skipping because of the growing outbreak. It wasn’t until a week after she’d flown home that she began to exhibit mild flu-like symptoms, she said. “I was feeling achy, sore throat, headache and then I ended up taking my temperature and had a minor fever as well,” Miller said. “I was like ‘Oh, no.’ I think I just had that sinking feeling in my gut and I realized I need to start staying inside my house.” Miller lives with her small daughter and husband in Prospector, and after consulting with him, they both notified people they had been in close contact with, including work colleagues. The next day, Miller began contacting health care professionals. She first reached out to her primary care physician, she said, and was given an Intermountain Healthcare hotline number to Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, March 21-24, 2020 ALEXANDER CRAMER The Park Record COURTESY OF JEN FAIRCHILD PHOTOGRAPHY Parkite Molly Miller was tested for the coronavirus on Wednesday. She self-quarantined while waiting for the results, which came back negative on Friday. Miller says it was a “huge relief.” call. The hotline was digitized, she said, and she was told to download an app. Once she’d done that, she was instructed to fill out a questionnaire and presented with an option for a telescreening, which she was told would cost $60. At this point, after about three hours on the phone or app, Miller decided to hit pause before going further. “I was just like oh my gosh, it was one thing after another: I was trying to get my work done, trying to take care of my 4 1/2-year-old daughter, and just trying to figure out whether my symptoms really merited me doing the telehealth screening and going through all of the rigmarole,” she said. “What really hit home for me, someone with really urgent symptoms wasn’t going to have time for this. At that time, it just seemed like a really imperfect and clunky process for someone who was feeling really not great.” Miller slept on it and decided to go forward with the telescreening the next day. She was asked about her symptoms, living situation and travel history during a “quick,” “dry” conversation with a health care professional who called her back a few minutes later to tell her she was “low-risk” and not qualified to take a test. “I couldn’t help but feel a little bit frustrated and a little bit worried,” she said. “When they said I’m low risk, my immediate reaction was ‘No, I’m not.’ It felt COURTESY OF MOLLY MILLER Parkite Molly Miller was tested for the coronavirus at a drive-through site in Salt Lake City. She says the experience mixed the mundaneness of a car wash with the surreal feeling of a horror movie. like my instinct immediately was the exact antithesis of what I was being told.” She said she tried to have compassion for the health care workers on the other side of the experience and acknowledged they were probably as frustrated as she was. Still, the process was far from perfect. “Certainly when I was going through, like, the phone call and the digital pieces of it, it felt so cold,” Miller said. Miller went through the telescreening process on Friday, March 13, and over the weekend monitored her symptoms and used over-the-counter flu medicine. She continued to have aches, a fever and a headache, she said. She told some friends about her experience and they recommended she try the University of Utah hotline. She called on Monday. “That could not have been a more compassionate experience — I will sing it from the rooftops,” Miller said. The interactions over the phone were all with people and she ended up speaking to a doctor who was kind and made her feel she wasn’t being rushed through the system. They also never asked for payment or insurance information. She was told to call back if her symptoms worsened, and she did so when she started to experience “a heavy and tight chest” on Tuesday. She was quickly put through to a telescreening and cleared to be tested for COVID-19. In the intervening few days, she said, San Diego had been determined to be a hotspot and community spread had begun in Summit County. On Wednesday, Miller headed down to the drive-through testing site in the Sugar House neighborhood in Salt Lake City. “It seemed pretty apocalyptic,” Miller recalled. “It seemed like I was in a movie. It seemed like ‘Contagion’ come to life.” Miller held her ID up to her car window and after a health care worker checked the list, she took her place in line, three cars back. Health care workers in large tents were shedding gowns and masks after one patient and dawning new protective equipment to ready for the next car. “Of course, yes, they need to be taking these precautions; I’d be scared if they weren’t,” Miller said. “It made it really hit home when I saw all these preparations going on.” Each car took about five minutes, Miller estimated. “Kind of like a little car-washtype scenario,” Miller said. Listening to coverage of the morning’s earthquake on the radio and staring at health care workers who looked like movie extras, Miller remembers thinking, “Is this real life?” “I was just totally flummoxed about my current state in the universe,” Miller said. “It was so surreal.” A health care professional snapped her out of her reverie with a smile and big wave, the kind of human connection that Miller said brought her back to reality. When it was her turn, Miller pulled forward into a privacy-providing tent and rolled her window down. She steeled herself against the throat swab she knew was coming, but first the health care professional unscrewed the red cap from a long tube and took out a nose swab wrapped in plastic. She was warned it might be pretty uncomfortable but didn’t give it a second thought. “So they reach in — and I can feel it and I’m like this isn’t bad, but then it keeps going in and it keeps going in and it keeps going in and I was like, ‘How is it possible that this swab is still going into my nose?’ Miller said with a laugh. “I felt like I could feel it in my brain and jaw at the same time. It’s the most disconcerting feeling I’ve ever had in my life.” After the swab came out — it was in there about a year, Miller jokingly estimates — the health care providers did a throat swab and she was on her way. She was told to expect results in about 48 hours. Miller wasn’t sure which way she wanted the results to come out. On one hand, a positive test meant she’d be done with the ordeal in a way, having hopefully gained immunity to the virus, though scientists have not proven that to be the case. But she said she’d feel guilty for having exposed her family to it and that she’d be devastated if she spread it to anyone who was immunocompromised. “So, you know, maybe 50/50. I wouldn’t know what I would want,” Miller said Wednesday. “I wouldn’t want to be positive but I feel it could be a bit of a relief. I really don’t know. It’s just a confounding time.” On Friday morning, Miller called the number she was given and, after about a minute wait, learned that the test had come back negative. Taking a break from working on an improvised number game with her daughter, Miller said the outcome was a weight off her shoulders and a “huge feeling of relief.” Intermountain Healthcare set up the first drive-through COVID-19 testing site in Summit County this week, with operations starting near Park City Hospital Thursday morning. The Quinn’s Junction location is one of 16 such sites the health care system has set up in an effort to bolster testing capabilities, something officials have said is one of the limiting factors in effectively fighting the coronavirus pandemic. Officials made clear that only those who are approved for a test can use the drive-through facility and that everyone else will be turned away. Those who are concerned about their symptoms should call a COVID-19 hotline. State Epidemiologist Angela Dunn said in a Thursday press conference that 1,526 people in the state had been tested for the novel coronavirus to date, a figure she said was likely lower than the actual total. Utah’s population is estimated to be more than 3.2 million people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In an interview posted online Tuesday, Dr. Eddie Stenehjem, Intermountain Healthcare medical director of infectious disease, said testing was a limited resource that health care professionals had to prioritize carefully. “We can’t test everybody that wants testing at this point,” Stenehjem said. “We clearly don’t have the testing capabilities to test all the asymptomatic folks to see who’s positive and who’s not.” He said the highest priority group are those who are critically ill and health care workers so that clinicians can marshal resources to those who need it most and protect the health care system. Stenehjem added that the lack of testing makes measures like social distancing even more important, because there is most likely a period before people exhibit symptoms that they’re shedding virus molecules. “Even if we have people shedding virus completely asymptomatic, if they are limiting their exposure to other people, not going out in the community, they’re stopping the spread of this virus,” he said. “We all have a role to play in this and this social dis- tancing is critical to it.” Stenehjem and Dunn said that a lack of materials like personal protective equipment and chemicals required for tests were factors limiting testing. Stenehjem said that Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox had convened a task force to study the medical supply chain in an effort to support the system where it was struggling. “Until those supply chains come online and we have access to everything for testing — the reagents, the swabs, everything we need — not until then will we see large volume testing in Utah,” Stenehjem said. Dunn said that testing is essential for fighting the outbreak and that efforts were ramping up. But without the data that increased testing would supply, officials have had to implement sweeping restrictions. “Without that widespread knowledge (which would be gained through testing), we have to implement public health interventions on a larger scale such as mass gathering restrictions,” Dunn said. “That’s what we’re doing now is implementing these school closures, mass gathering restrictions statewide in order to ensure that those who might have mild symptoms and aren’t tested for COVID-19 aren’t able to spread it to others.” Private labs like LabCorp, which has a national reach and extensive facilities in Salt Lake City, have ramped up testing capabilities. On March 9, a LabCorp spokesperson said they were expecting to be able to test “several thousand” samples per day. On Thursday, the company reported the capability to test 20,000 samples per day from around the nation. ARUP Laboratories, which evolved out of the University of Utah and continues to conduct that health care group’s lab testing, declined to give figures about how many tests it is conducting, though a spokesperson said employees are working “around the clock” and are delivering results in days rather than hours. Though the lack of testing is improving, the shortfall is limiting the effectiveness of governments and health care providers to the pandemic, officials say. “We don’t have the volume of tests to do asymptomatic screening, or even young people with mild symptoms,” Stenehjem said. “(To) those people, we’re going to say stay home, don’t come out, self isolate.” TANZI PROPST/PARK RECORD Summit County’s first drive-through COVID-19 testing site on Thursday, the afternoon it opened. Officials say the lack of statewide and nationwide testing is blunting their efforts to fight the pandemic. More cases seen in county, but growth rate is ‘mild’ Slowing spread of virus still critical, health officials say BUBBA BROWN The Park Record The number of coronavirus patients in Summit County increased to 35 by Friday afternoon in the week-plus since the first case was announced March 11, a level of growth county health officials are characterizing as mild despite continuing concern about the possibility of widespread transmission in the community. “When you look at the evidence that has occurred in other areas, our growth has been very mild,” said Phil Bondurant, Summit County’s deputy health director. “You look at a community like Park City where it’s kind of close quarters, people know each other, it’s very social. I don’t think we’re necessarily in a position to make a prediction about what is or what is not going to happen, but we’re very happy with our efforts.” Health officials have expected the number of cases to rise since the COVID-19 virus appeared in the area. They indicated residents should anticipate a further increase, particularly after the first instance of community spread in the area was confirmed March 13. That occurrence, involving a doorman at the Spur Bar and Grill on Main Street, marked a turning point in the Summit County Health Department’s response to the outbreak. On March 15, Health Director Rich Bullough issued a sweeping order forcing the closure of many businesses where people gather like gyms and movie theaters and imposing significant restrictions on others, such as restaurants, which are now allowed only to provide delivery, curbside or drive-through service. Bondurant said discussions about imposing such an order began behind the scenes weeks before the coronavirus appeared in Summit County, calling the first case of community spread the “trigger point” for enacting the restrictions. “We weren’t going to wait un- til we hit 100 cases or 150 cases,” he said. “It was, ‘As soon as we know that we have community spread and the Department of Health has confirmed that, we’re going to act.’” The measures, which include requiring ski areas to close — a step Park City’s resorts took voluntarily before the order was issued — are certain to have a debilitating effect on the area’s economy in the short-term. And many workers, seasonal and otherwise, now find themselves without a source of income. Bondurant said health officials acknowledge the steep price imposed on the business community but added that the measures are necessary to “flatten the curve,” or ensure the number of cases in the county doesn’t rapidly spike and overwhelm the health care system. “If it works, people are going to think we overreacted,” he said. “... Well, there’s no way to really measure that. But we will definitely know if we underreacted. In public health, you make your decisions based on what’s going to have the greatest impact on disease transmission. And we think that at this point we have done that.” Despite being encouraged by the relatively mild level of growth, health officials say the number of cases in Summit County compared to other parts of the state underscores the risk of inaction. As of Thursday evening, Summit County had 33% of the total cases in Utah and more than 20 times that of Salt Lake County on a per-capita basis. That’s why the Health Department continues to urge residents to sanitize commonly touched items, practice social distancing and monitor themselves for symptoms consistent with the coronavirus like fever, cough and respiratory problems. The county will also consider tweaking the restrictions included in the public health order as the situation evolves. Bullough is set to reevaluate the order in late March and may elect to remove or reduce the restrictions, increase them or leave them asis. “The last thing we want,” Bondurant said, “is to have this blow up and have us become the center of this.” |