>>14124079https://forward.com/news/457072/hasidic-coronavirus-kiryas-joel-orange-county/But Dr. Irina Gelman, the health commissioner for Orange County, which includes Kiryas Joel, a dense town of 26,000, has a different explanation: Village residents with coronavirus symptoms are refusing to get tested.
She said in emails to the Forward that doctors from hospitals, primary care providers and urgent cares have told her, as well as the state’s task force to stem the spread of coronavirus, that people showing coronavirus symptoms are foregoing tests altogether, including for flu and strep throat.
“This is not a typical declination in percent positive rate, which would be more gradual and over a longer period of time,” Gelman wrote in response to emailed questions. “I suspect there is some degree of correlation between the physician reported patient refusal to test and the dramatic decline in the currently reported test positive percent.”
