Clark County received one negative COVID-19 test Friday morning and was still waiting on eight other test results as of Friday night.
A tweet from Clark County Public Health said the negative test was from the county’s initial batch of specimens sent in earlier this week.
On Monday, Public Health sent specimens for seven people to Washington’s Public Health Laboratories in Shoreline. On Tuesday, Public Health sent in additional specimens for an eighth person. Public Health also tweeted that it sent in specimens for another person on Thursday.
Clark County has eight people under investigation, who are awaiting test results. Those eight people are isolated and not mingling in the community, according to Public Health.
Clark County’s test results are taking longer than anticipated to process due to a testing backlog at the state level and the prioritization of tests from King and Snohomish counties, which have outbreaks.
Earlier this week, the University of Washington Medicine virology laboratory was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to test for COVID-19, and the lab said Friday that it is on pace to be able to administer more than 1,000 tests per day, which is about 800 to 900 more than the state laboratory in Shoreline.
The UW Medicine virology laboratory confirmed that it will continue to test over the weekend and share those results with local health jurisdictions. The state Department of Health confirmed it, too, would be testing over the weekend and reporting results to county health departments.
Clark County results are expected to return within the next couple of days.
