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Positive case of COVID-19 expected in Hubbard County

Officials say Hubbard County likely an island of insufficient case identification, rather than safety.

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This illustration provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in January 2020 shows the 2019 Novel Coronavirus. This virus was identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China. (CDC/TNS)

Gov. Tim Walz and state health officials on May 8 said the state likely wasn't adequately testing Hubbard County residents or residents in the two other counties yet to report a confirmed case of COVID-19, Cook and Lake of the Woods. And that could present an undercount of COVID-19 cases there.

“This is becoming glaringly apparent both in Minnesota and, of course, nationally that the lack of testing blinded us," Walz said. "We had no sight picture on what was happening and now this is something every morning we started bright and early having a deep discussion on this."

Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said the state has brought online more testing capacity and there should be available within an hour's drive of all Minnesotans. She said the state needed to do more to raise awareness about that availability and to expand access to testing. In Hubbard County, those with symptoms of COVID-19 can be tested at the Essentia Health Park Rapids Clinic and Sanford Park Rapids Clinic.

“The providers are telling us people aren’t coming in, either because they had gotten the message previously that testing wasn’t available, or for whatever reason, people aren’t availing themselves of the testing capacity that’s there and we need to do better. We need to do more outreach and have stronger campaign, make sure that people know that they can and should be getting tested if they have symptoms.”

Marlee Morrison, CHI St. Joseph’s Health community health director, said Friday, “Up until about two weeks ago, testing was very limited in our region. Access to testing has increased at all providers in our county, and with the confirmed cases continuing to increase in Minnesota, we expect we will see a positive case in Hubbard County in the near future.”

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Dana Ferguson, the Capitol reporter for Forum News Service, also contributed to this article.

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