It’s becoming hard to tell how much COVID-19 is actually spreading in the community. And on-demand access to tests is spotty.
Indiana’s dashboard, maintained by the Department of Health, is often slow to update, and no longer updating over the weekends.
And with so many rapid tests used throughout the various communities, many of those results may not be reported to local or state health departments.
On Tuesday, Allen County reported 15 new deaths for a total of 967 and 548 new positive test results for a total of 77,668 known infections since the first case was reported.
And on Tuesday, the Allen County Health Department announced they would no longer use rapid tests in some instances at the remaining county test sites due to the increase in demand for them. It is a guideline set by the state to protect supplies.
Rapid tests will now be reserved for those adults 50 and over whom are symptomatic, as well as those under the age of 18.
For the rest of those seeking information about their COVID status, they will need to wait for the results of a PCR test, which can take around two to three days, according to a release.
Health department officials are disappointed in having to scale back the use of rapid tests, according to the release.
The Allen County testing clinic is located at 5750 Falls Drive.
