OKEECHOBEE — COVID-19 cases are increasing not only in Florida but across the United States, Tiffany Collins of the Florida Department of Health Department (FDOH) in Okeechobee County explained at the Nov. 25 meeting of the Okeechobee County commissioners.

“The best choice for this Thanksgiving is to celebrate with the people you live with in your household and, if you do have guests over, consider having the event outside where there is better ventilation,” she said.

In the past two weeks, 170 Okeechobee County residents have tested positive for COVID-19, Collins said. Raulerson Hosptial currently has eight patients who are COVID-19 positive. Six of the hospital’s eight ICU beds are in use. Collins stated that does not mean everyone in ICU is COVID-19 positive. Some could be in ICU for other ailments.

Collins said they county has had 1,998 positive cases to date with 43 deaths. She added there is a lag between a person’s date of death and the addition of that death to the FDOH dashboard because they have to wait for the medical examiner’s certificate of death to be forwarded to FDOH and then reviewed.

The county currently has a 9.99% positivity rate, she said, which makes it hard to track cases and determine when and where people are infected.

FDOH staff spend 40 minutes to two hours for contract tracing for each case, she explained.

“If we’re under 5%, our contract tracers can be effective,” she said. “At 10%, we are at widespread community transmission and it’s harder to determine where the individual contracted COVID-19.”

She said they have found people in Okeechobee County are most commonly contracting the virus in the workplace and in large gatherings, then they take it back to their homes and spread it to their families. If the infected person is asymptomatic, he or she, as well as infected family members, then spread it into the community.

Collins said they have found isolation protocols and quarantine protocols are not being followed. Those who have been exposed to COVID-19 are advised to stay home for 14 days. She said the start of that 14 days is the last day you had contact with a COVID-19 positive person, so if someone in your home is positive, a longer isolation period is needed.

“You can be infectious at any time in that 14-day period,” she explained. “We commonly see it around days five or seven, but have seen it at day 14 as well.”

Collins said the health department is currently only testing those who meet criteria, such as known exposure to someone who is COVID-19 positive or experiencing symptoms. Testing is available weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

She said due to funding cutbacks, the county hotline is no longer manned, but those with questions may call the state hotline at 866-779-6121 or email COVID-19@FLhealth.gov.

Commission Chairman Terry Burroughs said testing just provides information for that one point in time. You could be exposed and then test one day and show negative, and the next day you could test positive because more of the virus has built up in your system, he explained.

Unless you are being tested every single day, there is no way to know if you are positive, he said.

Collins said the Okeechobee County School Board now has a dashboard on their website at okee.k12.fl.us with information about students and staff who are COVID-19 positive or exposed to the virus.

Since the start of the current school year, 653 students and staff have been excluded from classes due to COVID-19 exposure. Currently, 30 students and staff are excluded from in-person classes.