Get Tested For COVID-19 Only If There was 'Close Exposure', Says Trump Administration Testing Chief

Healthy, young people need not get tested for COVID-19, said Dr. Brett Giroir, who is responsible for overseeing COVID-19 testing for the Trump administration.

“Unless you had an exposure, for example, if you were next to a person without a mask for fifteen minutes at a close contact, then it’s a close exposure and you might want to get tested,” Giroir told NBC News medical correspondent Dr. John Torres during a recent interview.

Giroir, the assistant secretary of health and human services for health, said even if one has been exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the advice was to self-isolate regardless of the test results.

People who go on to develop the illness might not initially test positive in the days soon after being exposed to the novel coronavirus. Therefore, it is quite possible they first test negative for COVID-19 but become positive after a few days. Moreover, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the incubation period for COVID-19 can be as long as two weeks.

"You should always make believe that you are infected — particularly young, healthy people," Giroir told NBC news.

His advice intended for asymptomatic COVID-19 patients seems to be aimed at easing demand for coronavirus testing. This has in turn led to long delays in the wait time for COVID-19 test results. The CDC recommends those with symptoms should still get tested for COVID-19.

Giroir said 73% test results get ready within three days and over 80% of them are ready in five days. However, this still leaves a significant number of individuals who must wait more than seven days to get their results. And in the meantime, they could expose a lot of other people to the virus.

Last week, the federal health agency recommended self-isolation until test results came back, so as to decelerate the spread of COVID-19 up to 86%.

Giroir’s advice is intended to take down the fervor of testing, even when the nation is capable of handling 800,000 COVID-tests per day.

But he said there could be an exception for young, healthy people. They shouldn’t forgo testing if they live with elderly people and the medically vulnerable ones.

"In those circumstances, it's much more of a reason to test. But even if you're negative, you need to be really careful around them. Wear your mask. Keep a safe distance. We can prevent transmission in the household if you do those simple steps," Giroir told NBC news.