On Saturday, May 16, I joined hundreds of others in getting a COVID-19 test from Spectrum Healthcare.
I pulled up in my car to the parking lot of Spectrum’s offices at 651 W. Mingus Ave., in Cottonwood, and was greeted by Arizona National Guard members in camouflage fatigues and healthcare workers dressed in heavy protective equipment — not just gloves and masks, but clear visors and smocks.
They took some personal information through the driver’s side window and then told me to drive up to where a woman wearing full personal protective gear briefly swabbed both of my nostrils. It did not hurt at all. She told me that I would get my results in three to five days, and I drove on.
For the past three weekends, Spectrum has joined hundreds of other sites throughout the state of Arizona in “blitz testing,” an effort to test tens of thousands of people for the novel coronavirus every weekend. The program was enacted by the Governor’s Office along with the Arizona Department of Health Services and partners throughout the state in an effort to boost Arizona’s testing rate.
A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation in late April found that Arizona was in last place among the states and District of Columbia in testing per capita.
On Friday, May 15, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced an intention to extend the program for an additional two weekends, after the initial three it was planned for neared its end.
“Yesterday on May 16 for our Prescott blitz we collected 221 specimens, and for our Cottonwood blitz we collected 278,” wrote Sunshine Dean, vice president of integration at Spectrum Healthcare Group, in an email on Sunday. “We have also decided to expand our testing for the next two week-ends at the request of the governor. On Saturday, May 23 and Saturday, May 30 we will have testing available at our Cottonwood and Prescott facilities from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.”
The spike in testing — which has more than doubled the amount of tests in Yavapai County since the end of April — coincides with significant increases in the number of cases found in the county, especially in Prescott Valley. As of Sunday, May 17, there were a total of 266 cases in Yavapai County, with 219 in the Prescott area and 47 in the Verde Valley. This represents a nearly three-fold increase of 89 on May 2 — 60 in the Prescott area and 29 in the Verde Valley — the first day of blitz testing.
Public health officials point out that the sharp rise in cases in the Prescott area is heavily attributable to one outbreak at Mingus Mountain Academy, an all-girls boarding school in Prescott Valley where the virus spread largely undetected among asymptomatic carriers under the age of 18. More than 100 cases are attributed to that school alone, but since it is a largely self-contained environment mostly of individuals not likely to face severe symptoms, public health leaders believe that it is largely contained, though at least 20 staff members have also tested positive.
“It’s definitely throwing off all the numbers,” Stephen Everett, section manager for communicable diseases at Yavapai County Community Health Services, said of the outbreak at the academy. “I think it’s going to be mostly confined. Fortunately, when people have symptoms, they’re really locking down.”
Testing has also lead to increases in the Verde Valley, though this area has not seen the kind of spike in cases that the other side of the mountains have. In the past week, the Verde Valley has seen an increase of nine cases, or 23.7%. Verde Valley Medical Center as of Saturday had zero COVID-19 patients, though it had five persons under investigation for potential exposure or COVID-like symptoms.
VVMC administrators attribute recent increases in cases in the area more to increased testing than to a new increase in community spread, since they have not been accompanied by an increase in severe cases needing hospitalization. However, both VVMC and Yavapai County note that community spread is continuing in the area and encourage everyone to maintain proper hand-washing, wearing protective equipment and social distancing to reduce spread as much as possible.
With Arizona allowing businesses to reopen more, experts are recommending testing for everyone who can as a means of trying to stop the spread of the virus by catching it early, before symptoms develop. Because of funding from the state, Spectrum is offering testing free of charge for those who wish to get tested though health insurers are charged for those who are insured.
“If someone wants a test, they can get it,” Dean said. “We’re not triaging for symptoms or anything.”
