Media Advisory
June 5, 2020
Clarification of COVID-19 Mass Testing Results
Today the State of North Dakota reported that 358 tests from Ward County were processed in the 24 hours ending at midnight last night. Few, if any, of these tests are from the mass testing drive-through event on Wednesday, June 3. If you are relaying the information from the State’s website, please be sure to clarify that the results are not necessarily from the mass testing event. Several other testing events were also scheduled Ward County this week, including a large testing event at Trinity Health, as well as tests ordered for symptomatic individuals. The two positive tests reported in Ward County today were identified as close contacts to an existing case.
Individuals who test positive will be contacted immediately. Those who test negative will be contacted when the test run is completed, which is expected to be about Monday. In other words, no news is good news! Your help in clarifying this message to the public would be greatly appreciated.
Once all tests have been run, First District Health Unit will share more information. During the mass testing event at the State Fairgrounds, 696 were tested , but the total may be different if any samples were inconclusive. Some of those tested were not Ward County residents, including some members of the National Guard. Hundreds of the tests completed in Ward County this week were not part of the mass testing event. Please keep these factors in mind as the county-by-county test results are released over the next several days.