NC woman with symptoms stunned by reaction after she called COVID-19 hotline

Frustrations are growing for people who are sick and think they have COVID-19 but can't get tested. The CDC announced new guidelines for people who should and shouldn't get tested, but those new guidelines have some people upset.

Sabrina Granados was having trouble breathing, along with a fever. Plus, she worked in the same area as someone who had already tested positive for COVID-19. With her symptoms getting worse and her doctor's office closed, she called the state's COVID-19 hotline.

"I don't want to be out there getting anyone sick," said Granados, who lives in Brunswick County.

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She said a nurse from the COVID-19 hotline told her to go to the emergency room to get tested, but once at the ER, Granados said she was shocked by what she said she was told.

"'We are just going to send you home with steroids, and you're just going to be treated as if you had the virus,'" Granados recalled.

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She wasn't given a flu or COVID-19 test.

"They said I would be given a test if I was being hospitalized or being put on a ventilator and seriously sick," she added.

This does follow what the CDC is emphasizing, which states testing is 'most important' for people who are seriously ill and in high-risk settings like nursing homes. Also, for healthcare workers and first responders on the frontlines.

"Remember a test will not change what someone with mild symptoms will do," said North Carolina State Health Director Dr. Betsy Tilson. "The vast majority will recover at home."

Granados left the ER with a piece of paper that states she is being treated for COVID-19, and it also includes the steps she now has to take, such as self-isolation, but she's frustrated with how this pandemic is being handled.

"I feel like the numbers are not correct and there are even more people out there that are sick even if we don't have severe symptoms," she said. "I feel like people are waiting for people to get really, really sick and at that point, I don't feel like testing them is really going to do anything."