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By
NICK GOSNELL
Hutch
Post
HUTCHINSON,
Kan. — 
Reno County Health Department Director Nick Baldetti would like to see local people with a primary care provider go to that provider after calling ahead, if they think they have COVID-19."We've already run, as a healthcare collective, 816 tests here locally," Baldetti said. "It's also important that the flu swab, so a standard flu test, is similar to the nasopharyngeal swab that is administered for COVID-19. Plus, you've got medical providers that went to school for this very thing. Yes, I have much higher confidence with medical professionals, whether it be your physician, your midlevel providers or nursing staff administering that test than just the general lay audience."Walmart and eTrueNorth are providing a testing site at the Kansas State Fairgrounds, but those tests are self-administered, but data point for data point, as of Friday morning, Reno County's doing better than it has in quite awhile."We're probably going about a month and a half if not a little bit longer since we've been at only seven active cases," Baldetti said. Numbers at every level must be put into context, including things like case clusters, which thus far, Reno County has been able to avoid. "About 81% of our positives are associated with seven counties," Baldetti said. "Wyandotte, Ford, Leavenworth, Seward, Finney, Johnson and Sedgwick counties."When thinking about the state and whether or not the opening phases as laid out by Gov. Laura Kelly go forward, statistics from those counties may drive the overall policy decisions.

Baldetti: Go to local provider if you have one; context in numbers is important