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20 COVID-19 Test Samples Collected At Jones Hill

Twenty COVID-19 test samples were taken from the testing center at the Jones Hill Memorial Health Center in Jamestown on Wednesday, the first day the site was open.

The statistic was shared Thursday by Dr. Donald Yealy, chair of the UPMC Department of Emergency Medicine and of the University of Pittsburgh.

There have been more than 4,100 tests across the UPMC health system, with 386 positive. The UPMC hospital system is currently treating 67 COVID-19 cases, most of whom do not need a ventilator or intensive care.

In response to a reporter’s question, Yealy said he doesn’t know if the 9% positive testing rate is too high or too low, though UPMC officials are confident that COVID-19 is not as intensely active or widespread in the communities the health system serves as it is in other parts of the country or New York state.

“I don’t know if 9% or 10% is low or high,” Yealy said. “We’re still learning a lot about how the virus enters a community. It doesn’t always enter a community in the same fashion. We know that when you look both globally and across the commonwealth, the amount of positive cases that are either symptomatic or admitted to the hospital varies greatly across the region. What we know is that we’re seeing this essentially 9-10% positive rate. Why that is I couldn’t speculate. What I can tell you is that our background surveillance suggests it’s not dramatically undercounting what’s available out in the community.”

Because there are limited numbers of tests, Yealy said UPMC is prioritizing who is tested with the health organization’s primary focus on those who have symptoms and who require hospitalization. Those who aren’t symptomatic but are concerned they might have acquired the infection aren’t being tested now, though that may change in the future.

“One group of people that we simply don’t have capacity today to test are people who have absolutely no symptoms but maybe have a concern about having maybe acquired the infection,” Yealy said. “It’s not that that’s unimportant, and at some point in time we’ll want to know what is the population that doesn’t have any symptoms, how often do they have the infection? But right now that’s not the highest priority. So my advice would be to seek testing if you have the symptoms — fever, difficulty breathing, the smell and taste things that we just talked about — and while you’re doing that make sure you remain isolated so that if you do have the infection you haven’t spread it to others.”

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