Fourth COVID related death reported in Kosciusko County, 300 recoveries reported

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Staff Report
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The fourth COVID related death was reported by the Kosciusko County Health Department last Friday afternoon. No information was given on the person who passed.

31 new cases of the virus were also reported between last Wednesday at noon and Friday at noon, bringing the total cases in the county up to 537. Of those cases, 233 remain active, including four hospitalized, and 300 people have now recovered from the virus.

The Kosciusko County Health Department also explained more into an announcement last Wednesday regarding cases and a local facilities testing that will not be included in the county or state totals:

“On Wednesday, we made an announcement regarding a local facility and their transition to a testing method that does not meet ISDH case criteria for a ‘confirmed’ COVID-19 case. We would like to make it clear that this method of testing is very accurate, and there is nothing wrong with the diagnostic capabilities of this test. However, if an individual tests positive with this method of testing, they will not be considered a confirmed case and they will not appear in the county or state COVID-19 case count. 

The new method of testing is a point-of-care (POC) SARS antigen test. A POC test means results may be available at the testing site in less than an hour. 

To help differentiate between antigen and antibody tests, ccording to the CDC, “nucleic acid amplification or antigen detection test can detect acutely infected persons, antibody tests help determine whether the individual being tested was previously infected—even if that person never showed symptoms.” 
 
In fact, the CDC has authorized the use of EUA antigen tests; however, the State of Indiana does not recognize these tests as being confirmatory. One reason for this may be because “these tests are very specific for the virus, but are not as sensitive as molecular PCR tests. Therefore, positive results from antigen tests are highly accurate, but there is a higher chance of false negatives, so negative results do not rule out infection. With this in mind, negative results from an antigen test may need to be confirmed with a PCR test prior to making treatment decisions or to prevent the possible spread of the virus due to a false negative.”

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