Knox County Emergency Management Coordinator Randy Hovind updated Galesburg Aldermen Monday night on where local COVID-19 response efforts stand currently.
Hovind ensures that each of the county’s testing facilities has plenty of tests for the moment with over 100 each at Cottage and OSF St. Mary Hospitals as well as the Health Department.
But the availability of tests could become an eventual “pinch point” he says.
Hovind admits that the growth in confirmed cases locally is at least somewhat tied to the increase in testing.
“You test an individual, if it was positive, you have to go and test the contacts. If they are positive then you have to test those contacts, so you can kind of see how that grows,” Hovind says.
Hovind says Cottage is now testing anyone who has been in contact with a positive case, and that doctors have ordered a test for.
The Health Department is under guidance from IDPH which has been loosened over time.
There is drive-through testing at all three testing locations.
Hovind also says there are now National Guard stationed at Henry C. Hill Correctional Center with a MASH Unit and 25 personnel.
