Montville — Following what she believes was her on-the-job exposure to COVID-19, Patricia Simon, a registered nurse with the Visiting Nurse Association of Southeastern Connecticut, developed symptoms associated with the disease: fever, joint pain, diarrhea, loss of smell.

She got tested April 5 at Backus Hospital's drive-thru site, and the results came back this week: negative.

But, given the severity of her symptoms and the possibility that it was a false negative, she was told to continue her 14-day quarantine at the Oakdale home she shares with her husband and their five children, who range in age from 11 to 20.

She can go back to work Monday.

Simon's more concerned about her family members and the difficulty two of them encountered in getting tested for COVID-19 despite having worse symptoms than she did. Her husband, Marc, was told he didn't qualify for a test. Eventually, a pediatrician prescribed one for the couple's 16-year-old son, Aaron, who was tested for strep throat at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital's emergency room and then for COVID-19 at the hospital's drive-thru site. Five days later, that COVID-19 test, too, came back negative.

"As a nurse, I'm frustrated that families of health care workers aren't being tested in Connecticut," Simon said. "I only got tested because I'm a nurse, but family members, even those with symptoms, are being told to assume they have the disease and to self-quarantine."

Simon said her husband kept a telehealth appointment with a primary care physician in a bid to get tested but was denied the necessary prescription. A doctor's order is required to have nasal and oral swabs taken for COVID-19 testing.

She said the doctor told her husband — a generally healthy, 41-year-old with mild asthma — there was no need to test him since the treatment would be the same regardless of the results. The doctor told her husband that if his symptoms — fever, sore throat, cough, shortness of breath, diarrhea, headaches — got worse, he should go to the emergency room.

"He diagnosed him with 'a viral-like upper respiratory infection with acute asthmatic exacerbation' but didn't say it was COVID-related," Simon said. "He gave him a note."

A union sheet metal worker, Marc Simon has temporarily stopped working at a Rhode Island construction site because of his wife's COVID-19 status and the uncertainty over his own health. Patricia Simon said some of her husband's co-workers have had no trouble getting tested at a CVS Health drive-thru site near Providence, where results are available in less than 15 minutes. Only Rhode Island residents can get tested at the site, she noted.

The Simon family's predicament stems in part from the need to ration COVID-19 tests in some areas, even as many public health officials are calling for more widespread testing. In Connecticut, a shortage of testing supplies, including swabs, has been a problem. As of Wednesday, 50,143 patients had been tested, according to figures released by Gov. Ned Lamont's office.

Late last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance on COVID-19 testing. It said clinicians should use their judgment in determining whether a patient has symptoms of the disease and should be tested. Most patients who have tested positive, the CDC said, have developed fever and/or symptoms of acute respiratory illness, including cough and difficulty breathing.

The CDC guidelines say priority for testing should be given to hospitalized patients; symptomatic health care workers; patients in long-term care facilities with symptoms; patients 65 and older with symptoms; patients with underlying conditions with symptoms; and first responders with symptoms.

As resources allow, the guidelines say, individuals in areas where the number of hospitalizations is rapidly increasing should be tested to limit community spread and ensure the health of essential workers. Then, testing should be extended to critical infrastructure workers with symptoms; other individuals with symptoms; and individuals with mild symptoms in communities experiencing many COVID-19 hospitalizations.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com