A drive-thru COVID-19 testing site at Prevea Health in Ashwaubenon. (PHOTO: WTAQ News)
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – The percentage of positive COVID-19 tests has been on a general upwards trajectory in recent weeks, but there are ways to keep those numbers from getting worse.
Most drive-thru testing sites in our area take anywhere from 24-72 hours to get test results, which is better than many other parts of the country right now. But health officials remind anyone who gets tested to follow the instructions while waiting for results.
“When you get tested, if you have symptoms, you have to isolate until you get the results back. And contact tracing, you have to be truthful about who you’ve been around. Those are all the things that we need, and we need public masking, otherwise we will be like Texas, Florida, or Arizona,” says Prevea Health CEO Dr. Ashok Rai.
In comparison to several other states, Wisconsin is keeping up with testing fairly well. But Rai thinks it will be important to expand and increase testing to get ahead of the spread of the virus.
“The virus is outpacing our testing capability here in Wisconsin. We could test more, we just have to open up more sites, and we’re working to do that even this week within Prevea,” Rai tells the WTAQ Morning News with Matt and Earl, “Given the fact that Governor Evers was able to sign a contract with local labs throughout the state, have the reagent somewhat created here in the state of Wisconsin, we’ve been pretty lucky.”
Meanwhile, Rai points out that we are still in the first ‘wave’ of the pandemic. There have been lulls, but things have yet to go back to normal without the concern of the virus still lingering.
“We never really got it to that point where we felt really comfortable that the virus wasn’t in the community spread mode, which it’s definitely been. Now it’s just ramping up,” Rai says.
Comments