PCHS residents double-test negative

Could the Perkins County Health Services campus finally be clear of COVID-19?

As of this week, all residents of Golden Ours Convalescent Home and Park Ridge assisted living have tested negative for two weeks in a row. 

CEO Neil Hilton said they are still awaiting test results on four employees. The rest of the staff has tested negative for cornoavirus on two different rounds of testing. 

Hilton doesn’t want to jump the gun until the remaining employee tests come back—hopefully negative. 

“We’ve been at this point before only to have a test come back positive,” 

“So, again, it’s eerily similar to three weeks ago when we had this exact same scenario. Everything that’s in is all negative all good. But we’re still waiting on just a handful—then guess what,” he told the county commissioners during their meeting Tuesday. 

If the remaining employee tests do come back negative, all residents and employees will have tested Covid-free for two consecutive weeks. 

That’s the milestone Hilton and PCHS have been looking for since Covid first spread through the senior care units eight weeks ago in mid-July. 

Hilton said back-to-back negative results over the course of two weeks testing would mean the campus is Covid-free. 

That could still change, he said, because the last resident to test positive had tested negative on four previous tests. 

He said the woman, who is in her 90s, never showed any symptoms and has remained healthy, despite testing positive. 

Hilton said from time to time, some of the test results have been “inconclusive” so lab testing is repeated on the sample. 

One of the questions that has arisen during the Covid testing is whether false positives can occur. Many believe they do.  

Hilton noted that in the last 14 days, as of Monday, Sept. 7, only three new cases have been reported in Perkins County. In neighboring counties, Chase County also has three new cases while Keith County has had two. 

Those low numbers are a good sign, however, he warned there will still be one or two cases come along. 

“The key is to not have the occasional ones and twos turn into 20,” he noted. 

Everyone needs to be prepared to be diligent in terms of trying to mitigate the exposure to the ones and twos, he added.