Donley County’s total COVID-19 case count crossed the 200 mark Tuesday with 45 people having active cases of the disease under the care of the Clarendon Family Medical Center as of late Tuesday afternoon.
In the last seven days, the local clinic has conducted 91 tests, and the total of known positive cases grew from 164 to 201.
Clinic spokesperson Marsha Bruce urged everyone to take the precautions that everyone by this point knows about.
“Do what you know you should,” she said, “and understand that there doesn’t have to be a fever to have COVID.”
Bruce said symptoms of the disease also vary widely and said the clinic has seen a lot of cases with gastrointestinal issues – nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea as well as people who think they just have a sinus infection.
“We have four people in the hospital, and that’s bad,” she said. “We have never sent that many to the hospital, and there are no beds in Amarillo right now.”
Rising cases also saw some local businesses and facilities again changing the way they do business. City Hall was again closed to the public, and the Burton Memorial Library will also be closed to the public for two weeks, according to City Administrator David Dockery.
The Donley County Senior Citizens put out a call for volunteers to help prepare meals after some staff had to be quarantined this week, and The Clarendon Enterprise also again closed its office to the public last week.
The actual number of COVID-19 cases in Donley County is believed by local officials to be higher than the numbers reported. The Enterprise receives regular updates from the Clarendon Family Medical Center, but positive test results on local residents from medical facilities in Childress, Amarillo, and elsewhere can and do lag behind by a matter of days or weeks before those reports get back to the county level from state officials.
As reported last week, Donley County Judge John Howard, MD, has expressed frustration with the state reporting system, not only for the time lag but also how the state is handling the results of rapid tests like those now being conducted at the local clinic. The state, Howard said, will not count a positive rapid test as a confirmed COVID-19 case unless it is backed up by the more invasive swab test.
“They will report those as ‘probable’ or ‘pending,’ but I assure you the only way you’re going to get a positive rapid test is if in fact you have COVID,” Howard said. The state’s online dashboard, therefore, will not show the same number of “confirmed” COVID cases in Donley County as reported in the Enterprise, and Howard also said the online dashboard of the Childress Regional Medical Center is “in no way official.”
Regarding the number of active cases in Donley County, Howard called that a “rolling number,” noting that patients who test positive for COVID-19 should come off the active list ten days after their test unless they are still showing symptoms.
Read the COVID-19 guidelines from the Clarendon Family Medical Center here.
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