PORT ANGELES – At Tuesday morning’s coronavirus update from County Health Officer Dr. Unthank, we learned that there have been 114 tests taken and submitted to state labs. 21 have come back negative, 93 are pending, and there are still no confirmed cases in Clallam County. She says there’s currently a 3-4 day lag time in getting results.

Unthank also pointed out some new information she received from state officials Monday night.

“The really unfortunate thing that we heard last night; so right now we have about a hundred and sixty tests left for the for the county as a whole, and we contacted the state for a replacement tests, and they told us that until we get positive tests, we can’t get test kits, which is about as insane as it sounds. And so, unfortunately, we’ve had to dramatically cut back on testing. So we are now only testing hospitalized patients. Outpatient, we are only testing first responders, hospital workers and people in long-term care facilities. We continue to have critical shortages of personal protective equipment. One of our great challenges is, right now, those are also not being filled by the state. We have received no fills on any of the orders we sent to the state. And again, we are being told that we can’t have any orders filled until we get positive tests, and we can’t get tests to find out if we have any one positive.”

Because they are only testing hospitalized patients who appear to have COVID-19, Unthank says there is ample evidence to believe that we do have positive cases who are, hopefully, staying home. She emphasized that if you are feeling even the mildest symptoms of an illness, you should stay home until at least 24 hours after your symptoms are gone.