If you think you need to be tested for COVID-19, you and your family should stay home while arranging testing or evaluation. Prevea Health, Advocate Aurora, and ThedaCare have processes in place where you can be evaluated online or via telephone and report to a drive-through testing site to have the test performed. In most cases, you do not need to see a doctor or nurse practitioner in order to be tested. Ascension Health is currently requiring an appointment for evaluation by a healthcare provider in order to be tested. Because the symptoms of COVID-19 are multiple and varied, we need to be proactive with testing. The most common symptoms are fever (which may be low grade), cough, shortness of breath, and loss of taste or smell. Many have also reported fatigue, sore throat, nausea, or diarrhea. If you have been in close contact with someone who has been diagnosed with COVID-19, stay home until you are cleared to return to work or school. Close contacts are often tested, but if the contact was significant enough, you may be required to stay home even if you test negative. This is because it can take up to 2 weeks after contact to show symptoms or to test positive. The NJSD HWC will not be performing COVID-19 testing, except when indicated as incident to other illness. For instance, if evaluating a patient for a sore throat and we’ve ruled out strep, we may determine COVID testing is necessary and would then perform the test. In general, if you need to be tested for COVID-19, you should use the resources listed to the left here. (These are in place to keep healthcare providers free to evaluate those who need in person care.) If you need help determining whether you should be tested, you can call us for help. In most cases, we will recommend testing through a drive through site.
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