GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has been going up around Wisconsin – and right here in Brown County. But those rising numbers can be attributed in large part to the rise in testing.
“Now that we’ve rolled out and we have different test kits in the state of Wisconsin, really this is the time if you’ve got any kind of symptoms associated with COVID, you should get tested. And we have the ability now to do that in Green Bay, which we didn’t even have two weeks ago,” says Prevea Health CEO Dr. Ashok Rai, “There’s a lot more employer testing this week than we’ve ever seen. The state has sent in National Guard to help us out – and a ton of test kits so a lot more people will be tested.”
As those test results come back, so do a percentage of confirmed cases.
“Statistically you’re going to get some more positives, we’ve talked about that – but we’ll also get a lot more negatives. So you want to see that positives as a percentage of whole probably the middle of next week to see what happened this week,” Rai explains.
The availability of testing has risen so much, in fact, that area healthcare providers are now able to test most people who are exhibiting symptoms of the coronavirus.
“Go to your physicians office and go through the symptoms – or do a virtual care visit, all the healthcare systems have different ways for that – but you can’t just show up at a testing site, you do need to get that order from a provider,” Rai says.
At times, it’s becoming difficult when attempting to contact trace the positive tests. That’s partially due to how many people in society tend to handle their phones.
“It’s so frustrating, we actually put it on the lab instructions now – ‘Please answer your phone if we call.’ We had to do that because my partner and I were so frustrated with the callbacks,” Rai says, “There are certain things we can leave on a voicemail, certain things we can’t from a HIPAA compliance standpoint. So we basically identify who we are and to please call us – and when people hear that, they usually call back.”
