A recent email to staff at Southern Virginia Mental Health Institute tells those who test positive for the coronavirus but are asymptomatic to keep working.
The facility was hit with a COVID-19 outbreak late last month. The Danville Register & Bee acquired the email shortly after it was sent out.
The email sent on Aug. 4 to SVMHI staff — and meant to be shared with clients — informs them that coronavirus testing would take place on Aug. 5 with results returned by the following Monday.Â
For staff who test positive, the email informs them that they will coordinate with the local Virginia Department of Health, an infection control coordinator and their own care plans if symptomatic.Â
However, those who are positive but are showing no symptoms must resume work, according to the email from SVMHI Chief Operating Officer Robin Crews.Â
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"If asymptomatic, CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] recommends PPE precautions, but continued work routine," she wrote in the email.Â
Voice messages left for Crews were not returned by deadline Thursday.Â
But Meghan McGuire, a spokeswoman with the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, which oversees the mental health institute, offered contradictory advice when asked by the Register & Bee about the safest approach to a positive test.
"If the test is COVID-19 positive, they must isolate," she wrote in an email. "Staff who have received a positive test result are referred to [the Virginia Department of Health's] local health department and are placed out of work until VDH clears them to return to work. We follow the CDC guidelines for returning to work for staff who are COVID-19 positive."
Also, CDC guidance recommends if a person has been exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID-19 — but the exposed person is asymptomatic — that person can continue to work while using precautions, including wearing PPE, McGuire said.
Tara Smith, professor of epidemiology at Kent State University in Ohio, also contradicted the advice given in the mental health institute's email and said those that test positive should self-quarantine.Â
"If that test shows they're positive, then they should be in isolation and should be working with the health department on contact tracing," Smith said. Â
According to the CDC's website, health care personnel who are not severely immunocompromised and who were asymptomatic during their infection can return to work after at least 10 days have passed since the date of their first positive COVID-19 test.
Southern Virginia Mental Health Institute is a 72-bed psychiatric hospital that provides inpatient services including psychiatric care, nursing, psychological and psychosocial rehabilitation and support, and specialized programs for adults aged 18-65 and individuals involved in the justice system.
The facility, which has 183 employees, offers services including diagnosis, medication management, psychological assessment, group therapy, activity therapy, family education and community meetings.
Crews' email also told staff and clients they would only be informed of their tests' results if they were positive. Also, for those with previous positive results, retesting was not recommended, she wrote. Â
"If you are not contacted, you may assume you were negative as of the test date," she wrote.Â
McGuire said when she followed up with SVMHI, she was told that every staff member and patient who took the test were give their results, whether they were positive or negative.Â
"All results were distributed to staff and patients in individual envelopes within five days after the facility point prevalence survey testing was conducted," McGuire told the Register & Bee. Â
As for the retesting, CDC guidance does not recommend it within 90 days of a positive test unless there are new, worsening symptoms of COVID-19 — and only with consultation by an infectious disease specialist or the department of health, McGuire said. Â
The virus can linger in the cells of someone who has recovered from COVID-19 and can lead to a positive test result, even though that person is asymptomatic and not contagious, Smith said. Â
As of Wednesday, three staff members and four patients at SVMHI were positive for COVID-19, McGuire said.Â
"Those patients remain in isolation," she said.
SVMHI's outbreak late last month had four clients and four staff members test positive for the coronavirus.
The facility halted admissions following the outbreak and has been consulting with the health department on when to resume them, McGuire said.
The health department can instruct facilities to cease admissions for 28 days from the most recent positive case, but "they may allow resuming admissions sooner if the facility has implemented the recommended infection control strategies and is in collaboration with the health department on the reopening plan," McGuire said. Â