COVID numbers rising in Wright County - result of more testing

Wright County has recently been listed as one of the top three COVID-19 “hot spots” in Iowa. Wright County Supervisor and Public Information Officer Karl Helgevold said that while this statement is true, the numbers are “skewed.” If you would compare the number of tests given per capita, county numbers across the state would look a lot different.

“(Wright County is) doing the same thing we’ve been doing...Increasing the testing increases the number of positives found.”

He clarified saying that Wright County is taking a proactive approach to testing and identifying people who have come in contact with a COVID-19 person. They have offered pop-up site testing as well as continue to do spot checking in the nursing homes as well as production facilities.

“Per capita we are one of the more aggressive testing counties. We’re even testing households - if there’s a positive in the house, we will many times test the rest of the household. We don’t always wait for symptoms. We try to shorten that cap from a potential exposure to testing. However, if someone is exposed they need to continue to isolate to assure that symptoms do not occur and avoid spreading the virus. Some of the testing in the pop-up clinics were potential exposures in a large crowd, so we aired on caution and offered testing to all those who weren’t sure if they were within six feet for more than 15 minutes,” said Wright County Public Health Nurse/epidemiology/RN Sandy McGrath.

“For every positive person we can identify with a test, that’s one less person walking around spreading the virus,” added Helgevold, addressing the fact that many of the positive results are in patients who are asymptomatic and don’t even realize they have the virus and could potentially spread it to other people. This week alone, Wright County Public Health has administered roughly 600 tests. In total, they tested close to 3,000 people. This number includes people who work in Wright County but do not live here, traveling here for work instead. These 3,000 people tested do not include those who have been tested at a local hospital or clinic.

“So the numbers released are correct. We are a hot spot, but it’s because we’re testing,” explained Helgevold. “We’re doing a lot of extra testing that other counties are not doing. It’s our obligation to test and our obligation to let people know.”

McGrath clarified that the people they are testing are not already symptomatic. They are trying to prevent the spread of the virus.

“It’s like walking through a dark room and you turn on the lights - you just see what’s already there,” said McGrath.

“Don’t panic, but be aware,” said Helgevold. “You can’t compare us to other counties. Our population is smaller and we’re doing more tests.” McGrath said she can not stress enough - IF YOU FEEL SICK, STAY HOME - TALK TO YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER - GET TESTED. “GROUP GATHERINGS ARE JUST NOT A GOOD IDEA right now,” she added.

All it takes is one unknown positive to create more positives.

McGrath said that she believes they are starting to slow the spread of COVID-19 in Wright County, but that’s all we can do until there is a vaccine.

Helgevold, along with Wright County Public Health, encourages everyone to not only social distance, but stay home when you can. The less contact you have with other people the less likely you are to contract the virus. If you must go out, wear a mask and wash/sanitize your hands. Do not touch your face.