By ROD ZOOK
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The results of community-wide pandemic testing show there are people walking around with asymptomatic conditions that are resulting in positive tests.
Dr. Scott Pauly with the Hutchinson Clinic, who helped administer the free testing, reported to the County Commission Tuesday that, in each of the three test days, five positive tests were found. Pauly says the pandemic is still very new and such positive tests could mean three things.
“There is the possibility that you catch somebody who is pre-symptomatic,” Pauly said. “The next scenario is, 'hey, there’s somebody who is never going to become symptomatic, they’re asymptomatic by the definition and they are infectious.' Or there is the possibility that they are post-infectious and are recovering.”
Pauly says the pandemic has changed the way the medical field has assessed viral spread and testing. And while the tests aren’t perfect, they are the best available.
“This is different than any medicine I’ve practiced,” Pauly said. “This is a practice of decreasing the transmission of a pandemic within a population. The earth is round, the sky is up and the ground is down. The positive test rate is what we use to track (COVID-19), we use the best test we have.”
Pauly says that wearing masks and taking additional steps have brought the pandemic spread down, but it is still not contained.
“This virus, based on our best knowledge in six months, which is in the infancy of understanding this — one person would infect five people, those five would infect five. So that’s 25 more plus the original one plus the second five,” Pauly said. “We’ve already cut the transmission value in this country down to three, down to two and change most likely in this community. But anything above one is exponential spread.”
Another round of community testing is set for Saturday. The testing will once again be held at the 2107 Building parking lot at the Hutchinson Clinic. The tests run from 9 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. and are free of charge.