Churchill County leaders encourage those who are asymptomatic and haven’t been vaccinated to consider getting tested for COVID during the weekly testing events.
“We need you to help keep our positivity rate low! Tests offered at county's public health site on Miner's Road on Tuesdays and Wednesdays,” said Shannon Ernst, social services director and lead for the testing and vaccine efforts in Churchill County.
Positivity rate is one of three metrics the State of Nevada uses to determine whether counties stay open during the pandemic. We need to keep the positivity rate under 7% to help us stay open, said Ernst. The positivity rate is calculated by the total number of people tested in a county divided by the number of positive tests.
The county currently is averaging 2 positive tests per test day, so if 100 people show up to be tested each day and only 2 are positive, that is a positivity rate of 2%. If only 20 people show up to be tested and 2 are positive, that is a positivity rate of 10%.
As of May 12, Churchill County’s test positivity rate was 5.5%.
Since vaccinated people cannot be tested, and previous positive individuals cannot be tested until after 90 days of record recovery, the more non-vaccinated, asymptomatic people who are willing to be tested the better our positivity rate.
Testing is held at the county’s public heath site on Miner’s Road off Highway 95 south. No appointment is needed, these are free and lines have been short.
The county’s next testing dates are Tuesday, May 18 from noon to 3 p.m. and Wednesday, May 19 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Make a difference in our community and volunteer to be tested if you haven’t been vaccinated and are not showing any COVID symptoms!