SPOKANE CO., Wash. – The Spokane Regional Health District reported 175 new COVID-19 cases and five deaths on Thursday.
While this is the most common case the province has reported since the beginning of the pandemic, it does not mean that 175 people test positive at night.
On Wednesday, health officer Dr. Bob Lutz said the health district was going through a huge backlog of test results. For the past month, it has taken up to 10 days for people to take their test results. More tests are processed locally and that period is short to seven days.
Lutz said one backup lab had about 300 “paper slips” from tests they had just processed.
“Unfortunately, this facility is not on what is called an electronic record, and so what we had was an envelope of about 300 pieces of paper from tests that returned from this company within the last few days,” Lutz said.
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