Coronavirus cases continue to increase in the Verde Valley, though the spread has slowed slightly compared to the rapid spikes of recent weeks. In the week from Wednesday, July 8, to Monday, July 15, 71 new cases were confirmed in the Verde Valley, bringing the total up to 389 — 169 in Cottonwood, 72 in Sedona, 77 in Camp Verde, 19 in Cornville, 18 in Rimrock, 33 in Clarkdale and one elsewhere in the area.
This increase is significantly lower than the biggest one-week increase in cases recorded so far, when 99 new cases were identified from June 24 through July 1. As of July 15, there are 1,244 total cases confirmed in Yavapai County since the outbreak, an increase of 19.5% in the past week.
As of Wednesday, Verde Valley Medical Center had 11 confirmed coronavirus patients with 11 more pending, a decrease from 18 the week before.
As case numbers continue to grow, the demand for tests has increased along with them.
“Our volume has picked up. We’ve spiked since April,” said Michala Ralston, a technician at Sonora Quest Laboratories in Cottonwood, which has been taking tests of patients to send to labs in Phoenix. “From May, we’ve gone from a 30% decrease to seeing 80 people every day.”
Ralston said that the increased traffic in the lobby of people trying to get tests has created difficulties in ensuring that people are appropriately distanced within the facility, and the lab is asking many to wait in their cars. The additional burden of ensuring proper personal protective equipment is adding extra strain on staff as they deal with the influx of customers.
“When our lobby gets busy, our patients are in fear of each other,” Ralston said. She stressed that despite the added influx, Sonora Quest is committed to accommodating all who come in seeking tests.
The high volume of tests has led to some delays in getting test results back.
“About a month ago, we were able to get most COVID-19 tests back within 24 to 48 hours, and 72 hours was a long wait,” Leslie Horton, director of Yavapai County Community Health Services, wrote in an email. “Now we are seeing wait times of five to seven or even 10 days in some instances. In my opinion, this is unacceptable as it delays contact tracing, and some people, if asymptomatic, will continue to be out in public thinking that they are well. Also, people that have tested positive often tell others that they’ve been in contact with that they may have been exposed even quicker than we can contact trace, so when there is a long wait for results, we have more people with unknown exposure possibly infecting others.”
“We are using commercial labs to process our COVID-19 testing and have experienced a delay in results as well,” Sunshine Dean, vice president of integration at Spectrum, wrote in an email. Though Spectrum no longer offers the drive-thru blitz testing that the state government paid for in May and June, it still offers coronavirus tests to those who make appointments. “We are actively working on acquiring in-house molecular testing so that we will be able to offer results to patients in under 15 minutes when they come to us at Spectrum.”
“Our advice for the public, in times when testing results may be slowed, is to stay home and quarantine if you’ve had a known contact with someone who is COVID-19 positive,” Horton wrote. “They should seek testing three to seven days after that contact, in order to receive an accurate test result. After testing, isolate at home for 10 days with or without test results, especially if you have COVID- like symptoms or know that you’ve likely been infected. Also, for everyone, please stay home if you’re sick. Wear a mask when you can’t physically distance from others, wash your hands often and stay home more often. We hope to see testing turnaround times improved very soon, as ADHS is partnering with Sonora Quest to expand lab capacity and ASU is beginning to pilot a saliva test that will be simple and easy to process.”
