S.T. George – In Sivern Utah, more than 48,000 people who have taken the Covid-1 test are involved in learning how intrusive the test can be, usually with a long stick that goes into both nostrils.
Perhaps, after that, the news would be welcome that “sticking to the nose” has gone away for most drive-through test sites locally.
Intermountain Healthcare, which operates three of the six drive-through coronavirus testing sites in southern Utah, announced Thursday that it is phased out. A saliva-based test that requires a little more than a person spitting in a small bottle.
The medical director of Dixie Regional Medical Center, Dr. “This is something that our community and patients want, and we are happy to offer this option,” said Patrick Carroll.
Carroll said the test was approved by Intermvanthan’s Central Laboratory, which is run by Associate Medical Director of Intermontaine for Infectious Diseases. Observed by Bert Lopansari.
Lopansry, who also directs microbiology for intermittent ventilation, said in a statement that the new saliva-based test, while less intrusive, would be no less complete.
“This new procedure should be more comfortable for patients and enable us to collect more patient samples at a time while maintaining the high quality of our testing,” Lopansari said.
IntermVanthan Healthcare conducts drive-through testing in the following locations:
- 400 East Campus 376 E. of Dickey Regional Medical Center in St. George. 500 south.
- Cedar City Instac are on 962 Sage Drive in Cedar City.
- 200 n in Pangnich. 400 East to Garfield Memorial Hospital.
As seen in the video at the beginning of this story, the test is administered by a person giving a sample of his saliva in a small vial.
The test is kind of perfect, the PCR test was the previous nose swab test. This means it will wait 24 to 72 hours for results.
This is different from the antigen test, which is also saliva based. Antigen testing can yield results in minutes but is still considered less accurate than PCR testing.
While Carroll applauds the simple test, he also said that the biggest test Southern Utahns face is coronavirus prevention so they can’t find themselves with symptoms that guarantee testing.
“While this expands COVID testing options, we encourage people to wear masks and practice safe body distances as soon as the cold and flu season enters,” Carroll said.
Utah is at a new high for coronavirus infections
While the news was good for those wishing to take the COVD-19 test locally, the Utah Health Department’s statewide report on Thursday revealed another disorder.
The state reported 1,198 new cases on Thursday, while the statewide positivity rate for COVID-19 tests rose to 14.2%. The seven-day daily average cases, which were below the government’s Gary Herbert’s day target of less than 400 cases earlier this month, are now approaching 1,000.
The main source of the new spike remains Utah County, which saw several cities Move to orange risk level on Tuesday. The spike has been less intense in cyclone Utah and is largely confined to Washington County. While the seven-day daily average has been increasing by 25.3 cases per day in Southern Utah, it is still below the 52-day average seen during infection growth in July that caused Dixie Regional Medical Center to almost reach capacity.
The nation has reported 200,000 deaths from the coronavirus in seven months, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
At this time, Washington was the equivalent of the entire population of all Washington County cities (177, 556). Died with the death of Kovid-19. With the deaths of 0 people, some have been rescued in the high mortality rate facing the rest of the nation in southern Utah.
COVID-19 Information Resources
St. George’s News has made every effort to ensure that the information in this story is accurate at the time of writing. However, as the situation and science surrounding coronavirus has evolved, some data have changed.
We invite you to check out the following resources for up-to-date information and resources.
Southern Utah Coronavirus Count (seven days average in brackets, Sept. 24, 2020)
Positive COVID-19 tests: 4,103 (24.0 new infections in seven days, increasing)
- Washington Washington County: 3,212 (19.6 per day, stable)
- Iron County: 1 731 (6.6 per day, increasing)
- Kane County: 75 (0.3 per day, increasing)
- Garfield County: 48 (0.1 per day, increasing)
- Beaver County: 37 (0.4 per day, rising)
Mortality: 30 (0.1 per day, stable)
- Washington County: 25
- Iron County: 2
- Garfield County: 2
- Kane County: 1
Hospitalized: 10 (emerging)
Received: Held at 3,673
Current Utah averages seven days: 857 (increasing)
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