Cookeville Regional Medical Center staff are urging folks to stay calm and stay home in light of the COVID 19 pandemic.

Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Mark Pierce said if you’re young with mild symptoms it’s best to stay home, rest and stay away from others.

He said those folks may not get seriously ill with COVID 19, but they could pass the virus to someone who will have it much worse, like the elderly or someone with other conditions.

Stephanie Etter, RN, CRMC’s infection prevention manager said everyone with COVID 19 symptoms won’t get a test for the virus.

“We’re not doing routine testing,” she said. “We’re doing testing based on medical judgement and the CDC criteria.”

“It’s imperative you understand we will only do the COVID test for people who meet the criteria for testing,” said CRMC’s Emergency Department Medical Director Dr. Ken Colaric. “We’ll only test if you meet all the criteria.”

Colaric said it takes a significant amount of time to get the tests returned to the hospital.

Pierce said CRMC can’t read the test in-house, so they have to send to another lab, which is handling so many tests, there’s a 4- to 5-day backlog. FULL STORY HERE