Mass COVID-19 Testing Offered at Fairgrounds After Local Case Number Spikes
The number of active COVID-19 cases in Scotland county has more than double in a week as Scotland County Health Department officials were joined by the Missouri National Guard to host a drive-thru rapid result COVID-19 testing event June 8-12 at the Scotland County Fairgrounds.
As of Monday afternoon, June 8th the Missouri COVID-19 Dashboard maintained by the state listed nine cases in Scotland County.
On June 1st the state data system Showed there were six confirmed cases in Scotland County. The local Health department reported that four of those cases were classified as “resolved”, meaning the patients had recovered and were no longer considered active cases.
In less than a week, the active case number expanded from two to five in Scotland County. While health department officials indicated that the special testing opportunities were not a direct result of the increased number of cases, the timing proved beneficial.
“Testing is the best path to identification and stopping the spread of the disease,” said Tasma Troutman of the Scotland County Health Department.
Troutman said, while there has been an increase in positive cases in the county, the testing event had already been scheduled.
“Cost is a big barrier for people in a rural community like ours,” she said. “So testing can be a hardship for the uninsured or under-insured. This was an opportunity for us to offer these services free of charge.”
In addition to the cost benefits of the five-day event at the Scotland County Fairgrounds, participants are getting results much quicker and are being administered a less-invasive nasal swab exam. While previous tests had taken weeks to produce results, participants on Monday at the rapid-response event were finding out in as quickly as 15 minutes if they had the virus or not.
That was the case for one Scotland County resident who found out through the testing on Monday that they had COVID-19.
After only 39 tests were administered on Monday, officials wanted to stress that the testing was available to anyone, regardless of the symptoms they were demonstrating.
Health officials noted that typical symptoms of the virus are coughing, shortness of breath, loss of taste and or smell, fatigue and fever, but noted that all those symptoms did not have to be present for an individual to receive the testing.
The testing event will be offered at the fairgrounds starting at 8 a.m. each morning through Thursday, June 11th. Testing is done by appointment and there are a limited number of spaces, so call 660-465-7275 to schedule a test.