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The Perry County Health Department hosted free COVID-19 testing on Monday and Tuesday, and despite serving fewer county residents than they hoped for, county health officials were pleased with how everything turned out.
“Everything went very smoothly,” said health department director Sylvia Forester.
The department received 400 test kits from the Missouri Department of Health and Human Services for the event, which was held at City Park in Perryville.
Initially, the 400 spots were reserved for Perry County residents who pre-registered through an online portal run by DHSS, but by Tuesday afternoon, Forester made the call to open up testing to anyone with or without registration.
When testing ended at 5 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, only 339 tests had been administered.
Forester said Wednesday morning that she wasn’t sure why numbers were so low.
“I haven’t had a chance to go over anything yet,” Forester said. “We’re very busy.”
The tests are being processed by Quest Diagnostics, which had been contracted by DHSS to perform the work rather than sending them all through the state labratory. All results should likely be returned by the end of the week.
“It shouldn’t be too long, because the state wants the information as soon as possible,” Forester said.
The free testing was part of the state’s efforts to increase testing as part of Gov. Mike Parson’s plan to reopen the state.
“It’s definitely one of the pillars that’s going to help determine spread in the community,” Forester said. “It’ll give us an opportunity to identify positives and help reduce that spread even more. Plus, it’ll give us an idea of if we have asymptomatic citizens. It’s going to really help with data collection.”
On April 17, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson extended his “Stay Home Missouri” order through May 3, and at the same time, announced his “Show Me Strong” recovery plan for eventually reopening the state.
According to Parson, his plan rested on what he termed “four essential pillars” comprised of rapidly expanding testing capacity and volume in the state, expanding reserves of PPE by opening public and private supply chains and continuing to utilize Missouri businesses in that effort, continuing to monitor and expand hospital and health care system capacity, and improving the state’s ability to predict potential outbreaks using Missouri’s public health data.
“This mass testing will help with epidemiological data and give us a better understanding of what’s going on in our community, especially as people start to resume modified business services,” Foster said Saturday.
On Monday, Liz House, the county health department’s assistant director, said low numbers during the drive-thru testing event at the park could have been affected by issues with the registration website. According to reports, a number of people who registered were never contacted with an appointment window.
“There’s been a couple people that have had some problems signing up online,” House said.
Forester, meanwhile, praised DHSS for providing the free tests to Parry County.
“We were very fortunate to have been chosen,” Forester said. “We’re one of eight counties where the state decided to roll out the mass testing, so this is a big deal. We’re very fortunate to be able to have this to help our community combat COVID-19 and identify some positives before we start resuming modified business services.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, the health department reported 41 cases of COVID-19 in the county, with 35 reported recoveries. Those numbers do not include results from Monday and Tuesday’s testing.
Testing at Perry County Memorial Hospital also continued last week. According to a report issued Wednesday morning, the hospital has administered 251 tests since March 12, ranging in age from 3 to over 80, including 57 in the past week. Of those, eight returned positive results, including six men and two women.
According to PCMH officials, those receiving positive results are not necessarily Perry County residents, since not everyone tested is from the county.
