CHARLESTON, W.Va. — 30 employees at the Kanawha County Judicial Annex have tested negative for COVID-19, the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department announced.
The rapid testing was done after seven other judicial annex employees and one employee’s spouse was infected with the disease.
“This is a much-needed breath of relief, in an area where we thought we had higher transmission,” Dr. Sherri Young, the chief health officer and executive director for the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department (KCHD) said.
The rapid test kits obtained by the KCHD look for antibodies during a test and are used for investigations and clusters, Young said. According to her, tests are completed within 10 minutes and a patient knows the results on site.
She continued to express frustration with the general commercial testing being done with other cases in the county. Young said patients should treat it like they are positive when waiting on commercial lab results.
“There have been two instances where somebody has been notified of a positive from an outside source like Lab Corps 12 days after they have been tested,” she said.
“By the time 12 days have gone by, if the patient hasn’t been isolating or in contact with other people, it puts other people into danger.”
The positive cases in Kanawha County continue to rise each day. During the Kanawha County Commission meeting Thursday evening, Dr. Young indicated the county is now up to 50 positive cases.
Young projects the peak in the county to hit in one to three weeks and to maintain that rate for another two to weeks.
“It’s varied in how much it goes up. It may go up a few each day but this is a significant amount in the short period of time we’ve been working on this,” Young said.
The judicial annex remains closed until Monday and Young said officials will meet this weekend to determine the next steps. An extended closure seems likely with Young pushing for more annex employees to be tested.
Any employer needing to be tested for the virus is directed to call the department and schedule an appointment at 304-348-1088.
KCHD announced that eight first responders were also tested, all of which were negative.