Ballad Health: Positivity rates from COVID-19 tests up to 7%

Ballad Health officials say positive rates from COVID-19 tests have jumped to around 7% from a previous 1-2% rate as virus cases continue to surge across the region.

During Ballad’s weekly update, Chief Operating Officer Eric Deaton said the system is now performing over 800 tests per day, while the total amount of tests Ballad has performed is now over 32,000. Officials for the second straight week informed residents that a large increase in testing both locally and nationwide has caused a significant backlog in getting results back, sometimes as many as two weeks to get results back. The system’s in-house testing is normally limited to emergencies and surgical patients.

Deaton said Ballad is working very hard with the outside laboratories to help speed up getting tests results back.

Officials also provided an update to their hospitalization numbers. Ballad currently has 90 patients hospitalized, with 23 of those in the ICU and 17 on a ventilator. 14 additional patients are hospitalized awaiting results of their COVID-19 tests. Just one month, Deaton said Ballad only had four patients hospitalized.

Photo Courtesy: Ballad Health