As virus cases rise, testing results a priority
Area labs are helping to speed up getting results back about coronavirus.
The number of confirmed cases in the region continued to grow, and one of the organizations involved in the Dayton drive-through testing sample collection is working on getting lab testing in the area to speed the time it takes to get results.
Many labs are backlogged, health officials have continued to report. Testing supplies are in short supply, which is also limiting how much testing can be done, though some manufacturers such as Springboro-based Hardy Diagnostics are stepping up to make more testing supplies in the U.S.
Right now in the Dayton area, first priority is given for those critically ill and those who could be hospitalized.
Premier Health’s Fidelity Urgent Care is collecting testing samples from people in the UD Arena parking lot who have a physician’s order, working with CompuNet on testing.
Teresa Williams, CompuNet chief operating officer, said that the company tests for 21 other respiratory illnesses to eliminate those. CompuNet has provided nearly 1,300 of these screening tests and with 25 percent providing a diagnosis other than the coronavirus that’s part of the outbreak.
If it can’t eliminate COVID-19, they send the tests to Quest, which is able to test for the the virus.
Originally Quest had been testing these in California, but Quest recently added a second testing facility in West Virginia, which is speeding up turnaround time.
“We are seeing results back as quickly as three days, but on average we’re running five to seven days,” Williams said.
CompuNet is working on getting set up so the company can test on its own for the virus, but Williams said she doesn’t yet have a time available on when they will
be locally testing. The man- ufacturers who make the testing supplies are prioritizing hardest hit areas such as New York and Washing- ton state.
The Dayton region has at least 46 confirmed cases of coronavirus, though public health officials continued to emphasize that this is only a small portion of the total number of people with the disease.
Total confirmed COVID-19 case counts are also difficult to use as a metric because of the patchwork way numbers have been reported.
Private and public labs are all doing testing and results are coming in at different speeds. Not everyone is reporting how many tests come back negative, so the rate of positive cases is not clear.
With the difficulty in recording numbers, the state sometimes lists dif- ferent totals in confirmed cases than counties list for themselves.
Montgomery County has 13 confirmed cases as of Tuesday afternoon.
The Warren County Health District reported two new confirmed novel coronavirus cases Tuesday. Six of seven cases so far were men and one a woman, and the district said the age range 22 to 74 years old. Earlier Tuesday, the Warren County board of commissioners revealed one case was a probation officer in the court system.
According to Ohio Department of Health, Clark County has two confirmed cases, Darke County has one, and Greene has three.
There are no new cases of coronavirus or deaths from the illness in Miami County on Tuesday as health officials there continue to battle a coronavirus cluster outbreak at two of the county’s nursing homes, according to a news release from Miami County Public Health.
There are currently 23 positive cases in Miami County, including 22 associated with the nursing homes Koester Pavilion and Springmeade Heath Center.
Three residents of Koester
Pavilion have died since the outbreak, with one man testing positive for COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, and results pending on the other two.