Employees with Roxby Labs have processed more than 12,000 tests for Covid-19 in Ohio County since December 27, including nearly 4,700 last week alone.
Dr. Natasha Smith, the chief scientific officer for Roxby Labs, explained that since the holiday season, the positivity rate in Ohio County has been approximately 25 percent. That rate was 28.2 percent between Jan. 9-16 with 1320 positive cases reported following 4,685 tests collected by personnel with Roxby and the Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department.
“It has been a rapid increase as far as the number of tests that we’ve been processing and that is why we have expanded our hours of operation from 7 a.m. until midnight each day,” Smith explained. “But we have been returning results to the individuals tested within 48 hours because we know how important it is to people especially with the new, shortened quarantine guidelines.
“People need to know quickly so that is why we are working very hard,” she said. “We have also hired a number of people and Roxby folks from other divisions also have come to the labs to assist us. It’s really been a team effort and working with the Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department has been a great experience.”
That partnership soon will produce a second testing location for local residents to utilize if they believe they may have contracted the coronavirus.
“Because of what we have seen at the testing site on the former (Ohio Valley Medical Center) campus, we have been working with the health department to establish and operate a another testing location on the east side of Ohio County,” Smith announced. “That way, we believe that will reduce the amount of time people have to wait in line because, if they are there for a test, they are not feeling very well and the last thing they want to do is sit in their cars and wait to be tested.
“I have discussed it with (health department administrator) Howard Gamble and he’s been very helpful,” she said. “We are working very hard to get that second location opened as soon as we can because of the increase we’ve experience took place very, very quickly. We have had adjust some things and we believe we have made it better for everyone.”
Processing the Process
Since Roxby Labs the only state-contracted and CLIA certified high-complexity reference laboratory performing COVID PCR testing in the Northern Panhandle, the staff often has returned results to tested individuals within 24 hours, but since the post-holiday season increase the wait has been extended to approximately 48 hours.
Roxby has entered into testing partnerships with Wheeling Health Right, Change Inc., and the Moundsville Pharmacy in Marshall County, and Dr. Smith expects the pharmacy to involved with Ohio County’s second testing location.
To expedite the results process, the chief scientific officer said, those planning to get tested should first register on the Roxby Labs website.
“If people go to our website and pre-register, it really streamlines the process of getting their results back to them,” Smith said. “If someone is not pre-registered, then our staff members have to spend the time entering all of their information before we can send out the results. That is why we strongly recommend people offer us that information before coming to get tested.
“Because the Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department does free testing five days per week, we get a lot of people from Ohio because testing is not as available across the river as it is here,” she said. “Unfortunately, because of the big increase in the number of cases, there have been lines at the testing site and people have had to wait. The second testing location will alleviate that issue.”
