MISSOULA — The Missoula City-County Health Department is expecting to begin rapid testing for COVID-19 at some point next week, as long as the filters for the machines are installed on time.
Incident Commander Cindy Farr said for the first 30 days, to ensure their machines are working properly, anyone who completes a rapid test will also have to get a regular test.
The lag in regular testing results has nearly diminished though. You’ll now receive those results within 24-to-72 hours.
A concern on many people's minds is the recent influx of students to the University of Montana.
Farr said we could see an uptick in cases, but her team is in good shape to handle a potential spike.
“Luckily for us, we have a very robust contact tracing team, case investigation team, a monitoring team, and we're fully staffed right now,” said Farr, “So we definitely don't have any concerns that we would not have capacity for it if we do start seeing more cases.”
Farr noted that the health department will provide guidance for the high school football season by the end of the week.