Pop-up testing is also not for people with previous positive tests or pending test results. This includes patients who have already had a positive test in the last three months — repeat testing is not needed.
Who is pop-up testing highly recommended for? People are advised to come out who think they may have been exposed to someone with COVID-19 or who have started having symptoms, such as cough, shortness of breath, fever or new loss of taste or smell.
Also, people who have had a lot of exposure to others lately or those in close contact with a vulnerable person should consider stopping by.
“Definitely if you have symptoms, you think you may have been exposed or you’re concerned because you’re living with someone who is immuno-compromised or elderly,” Suffoletto said.
Pop-up testing held by Public Health - Dayton & Montgomery County is 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today at Dixie Twin Drive-In, 6201 N. Dixie Drive, Dayton.
No appointment or doctor recommendation needed. Testing will be provided in a drive-through format. For questions call the COVID-19 Information Line at 937-225-6217.
Since people with this particular coronavirus don’t always feel sick when they are infectious, testing helps identify positive cases so people know they are sick and need to isolate to stop the virus from spreading. Testing also adds to the data available on how and where the novel coronavirus is spreading, which lets public health officials adapt their strategy as needed.
The volume of tests in Ohio has grown significantly since the beginning of the pandemic, though issues remain, with some people still experiencing bottlenecks in getting timely results, in securing supplies and in getting testing to those who need it most.
“We have expanded it but we’re not where we need to be nor where we want to be,” Gov. Mike DeWine had said Thursday, addressing the current state of coronavirus testing. “It is a work in progress.”
Some of the work that has occurred so far includes the efforts by Ohio National Guard taking testing into nursing homes around the state as well as pop-up testing sites, also with the Ohio National Guard.
The Dayton Daily News also previously reported that Ohio is working with six other states on a group purchasing agreement to buy more antigen tests, which get more rapid results so officials can act more quickly though they are more likely to miss some of the positive tests that PCR lab tests would have detected.
Along with the group purchasing effort, DeWine said the state is working with scientists on what the best ways are to deploy the antigen tests, though no decision has been made yet.
“We need to keep pushing for new ways of testing COVID-19, and quite candidly this continues to evolve,” he said.
In the past week, around 4% to just under 5% of Ohio PCR tests have been coming back positive, though that rate ranges from county to county.
The World Health Organization advises if a community has a rate of positive tests lower than 5%, that suggests a community is testing enough of the population to catch coronavirus cases and track the outbreak.
UD COVID-19 cases increase to 744
The University of Dayton reported 343 students have tested positive for COVID-19 since Friday, including 111 on Monday, which brings the number of active cases to 744.
Over the weekend, UD reported its highest single-day total of 167 cases on Saturday, and another 65 cases were reported Sunday, according to the university’s campus status webpage. The number of coronavirus cases is nearing 10 percent of the student body, based on the total undergraduate enrollment of 8,717 for 2020 reported to U.S. News & World Report for its annual college rankings.
The campus alert level remained unchanged Monday at red Status 4-Warning on its five-tired system. This means contact tracing is not able to reliably identify affected individuals. The next status would call for all students to vacate campus.
Last week, the university extended remote learning until at least Sept. 14. It also launched an initiative to expand testing of students.
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