The director of the Florida Department of Health in Hillsborough County recently told members of the county's Emergency Policy Group that people who test positive for COVID-19 are not being encouraged to undergo repeat testing.

"I want to make it clear – they should not be retesting," Dr. Douglas Holt told EPG members at their July 16 meeting. "It is not required, and it gives bad information. It can keep people out of work or isolated for up to six weeks, three months."

Holt instead said people should be following guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC recommends those who test positive isolate for ten days following their first symptoms. Once they go 24 hours with no fever – without the aid of fever-reducing medication – and symptoms have improved, they can be with others.

University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine Sr. Associate Dean Dr. Jay Wolfson said, among the concerns about repeat testing, are the strain it could put on resources and laboratories.

"If you don't have symptoms, and you don't know that you have been exposed to somebody with COVID, don't get tested. Because right now, it's taking 7-10 days for people to get their test results back," said Wolfson, who's also a public health professor with USF.

Wolfson said it's unlikely that someone would be contagious after following the CDC's isolation guidelines.

"We are learning everyday something new about this disease. We have learned recently that some people can continue to shed the virus 14, 20 – we even had a case of someone 40 days afterwards. Those are rare, rare cases, and they're likely not going to be shedding as strong," Wolfson said.