Even though new daily COVID-19 cases in the Tri-Cities has fallen by more than 50% since June, it is still necessary to practice safety measures, including wearing face masks in public and maintaining social distancing. | Pixabay
Even though new daily COVID-19 cases in the Tri-Cities has fallen by more than 50% since June, it is still necessary to practice safety measures, including wearing face masks in public and maintaining social distancing. | Pixabay
The number of new daily COVID-19 cases in the Tri-Cities has fallen by more than 50% since the start of July.
Dr. Amy Person, health officer for Benton and Franklin Counties, said the situation looks much better than it did last month. This is in part due to readily available testing.
“We’ve heard concerns in the past that if we test more that will just make our disease rates go up,” Person told the Tri-City Herald. “That could not be further from the truth.”
Easily accessible testing has allowed more people to be tested, cases to be caught earlier and those who may have come in contact with an infected person know sooner to get tested themselves and isolate. The result of this action and more people wearing face coverings in public has been reduced transmission.
Another rumor that has been circulating is of people who have completed paperwork for coronavirus testing but did not stay for the procedure. They later received a positive test result in the mail.
“That is a situation that would absolutely not happen at our community testing sites,” Person told the Tri-City Herald.
Testing sites are set up so that personal information and a test sample are collected from the subject without a delay.
The biggest hurdle the community is facing is coming through the Labor Day holiday without a surge of new cases. Cases surged after the Memorial Day holiday because people gathered to celebrate and were not careful with social distancing or face masks. Person reminds that precautions still need to be taken when gathering with friends and neighbors.
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