MEDFORD, Ore. — Even with Thursday’s latest confirmed cases, Jackson County Public Health says those numbers don’t reflect how many people are actually infected.
Public Health Officer Dr. Jim Shames says at some point we’re going to have a lot of positive cases, if we don’t already.
For that reason, he wants to de-emphasize the number of cases the county can confirm.
That’s because he says there’s a lag time between how serious the disease is in our community and how we can document that through positive tests.
“I guarantee you there’s a number of individuals who are incubating coronavirus right now and we would like to make sure those individuals stay away from others so we can reduce the speed at which this is going to spread through our community,” said Dr. Jim Shames, Jackson Co. Public Health.
Dr. Shames says test results can take up to 10 days to get back.
He says not everyone who is infected will get tested and many won’t know they’re carrying the virus and infecting other people.
He says the best advice is to stay home.
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