Roberts issues New Year’s weekend COVID advisory

TYLER — NET Health’s George Roberts urges you to be safe over the New Year’s weekend. He addresses the jump in COVID numbers in East Texas since last week. One area of concern: a lot of reports of high positivity rates. Roberts says one area health care system reported Wednesday that its positivity rate was 47 per cent of its patients, with another county reporting 38 per cent. Roberts also ran down current CDC guidelines: If you test positive, you should stay home for at least five days; and if you have no symptoms or your symptoms are resolving after five days, you can leave your house, but wear a mask around others for another five days. But he says according to the CDC, if you have a fever during this whole process, stay home until it resolves. He adds that if you are exposed, you are asked to isolate yourself at home for five days and then test at the end of that period to see if you have COVID or not.

And don’t forget: the NET Health vaccine clinic in Tyler moves to a new North Spring Street location the first week of the new year. It’s directly behind NET Health’s main office on North Broadway. For more information on COVID-19 in East Texas, click here.