CLARK COUNTY — The Clark County Combined Health District said after a slightly ‘disappointing’ first COVID-19 test clinic, it was overwhelmed to see hundreds show up at Perrin Woods Elementary School on Wednesday for another round of testing.
The health district said it tested about 470 people at Hayward Middle School on July 8. They had the capability to test 1,000.
It’s not clear the exact number of positive versus negative cases that came from that testing, but the health district said the positivity rate was low from what health officials could tell so far.
The attendance was much higher on Wednesday compared to last week, as a steady stream of people lined up to get tested for hours.
“If we continue on this pace, we’ll probably get in that 750-1000 tests,” Clark County Health Commissioner Charles Patterson told News Center 7′s Jenna Lawson as a line of people grew. “And we’re gonna be able to identify a handful of people out of those 1000 tests so we can slow the spread of the virus.”
Clark County resident Rita Naill said she wanted to get tested to be 100% sure that she wasn’t spreading the virus to anyone.
“I think people are really taking it seriously now,” she said. “It’s gone on so long now and they’ve seen the numbers, and they just wanna make sure they’re not one of them,”
The health district said lab results are taking slightly longer than expected – about 5 to 7 days on average. Officials will have to look at that wait time, along with increased attendance rates at test sites if they continue, as they plan any future pop-up testing.
The testing focuses on hotspot neighborhoods identified by Gov. Mike DeWine.
“The nasal pharyngeal swabs we’re sending to a laboratory -- they’re very good tests,” Patterson said. “We have very few false positives. For it to trigger, it has to find the RNA of this virus present.”
Patterson said the county is seeing a decrease in the hospitalization rate for COVID-19, but warned that people shouldn’t let their guards down.
He said the county is consistently tracking about 45-55 new cases per week and in younger age groups compared to earlier in the pandemic.
Another pop-up testing site is scheduled for July 22 from noon to 6:00 p.m. at La Condesa #1 on South Burnett Road.
The testing is free and someone does not need a doctor’s note or to be showing symptoms of COVID-19 to be tested.
Cox Media Group
