Last Thursday's drive-thru coronavirus testing clinic at the Moniteau County Health Center resulted in no new positive cases.
During the clinic's two-hour window, 67 individuals requested to be tested, and all of these tests have been reported as negative. The clinic had the capacity to test approximately 153 individuals, mirroring the roughly 160 tests performed during last month's Department of Health and Senior Services testing event facilitated by the Missouri National Guard.
Thursday's clinic was helped, in part, by SSM Health and the Community Health Center of Central Missouri.
Moniteau County has seen 20 new active cases of COVID-19 since the end of June, bringing the total number of cases since the start of the pandemic to 78. As of Monday evening, there are 13 remaining active cases in the county - three of which were newly-reported this week - and 64 individuals have recovered.
Darrell Hendrickson, environmental specialist with the Moniteau County Health Department, said despite the good results following the clinic, Hendrickson urged the community to continue to be diligent in preventing any further spread of COVID-19.
"We need to continue doing that due dilligence to make sure everybody stays safe," Hendrickson said.
Hendrickson said while public health officials are optimistic there will not be another jump in cases, they would expect to see new active cases continue to trickle in throughout the second half of the month.
"Naturally, we're going to anticipate that, because the virus is live, it is out there," Hendrickson said. "So we'll just continue monitoring the community. We'd encourage people that are ill to get tested, and for everybody else as well, continue doing the things that keep you healthy."
Hendrickson said last week the clinic wasn't planned and was a reaction to the jump in cases seen in the county since early on in July.
"We had an opportunity to do it, and figured we'd better jump on it," Hendrickson said.
Cars were lined up in wait at the Moniteau County Health Center for Thursday's free drive-thru coronavirus testing clinic fifteen minutes prior to its start time, and Hendrickson said it stayed busy for the entire window.
"We didn't have to turn anybody away, so we were very pleased," Hendrickson said.
Health Center Administrator Andrea Kincaid said Thursday there are not yet any other COVID-19 testing events planned in California for the near future, since Thursday's event was a reactive event with a two-day turnaround from conception to execution. Hendrickson echoed this sentiment on Monday, indicating that any future testing events will stem from a similar jump in active positive cases like what Moniteau County has seen during the month of July thus far.
"We'll monitor what's going on in the county before we make any decisions about any further testing events, but there are none scheduled at this time," Hendrickson said.