Santa Cruz County reports a negative number of new COVID-19 cases

Screenshot from ADHS dashboard shows negative number of COVID-19 cases in Santa Cruz County.

NOGALES, Ariz. — The Arizona Department of Health Services reported negative two new COVID-19 cases in Santa Cruz County Sunday.

Santa Cruz County Manager Jennifer St. John says there are a couple of reasons why the county would report a negative number. Most commonly, it happens if someone is put in the system twice or if someone moved to a new county and not updated their address yet.

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"The usual answers are that there are duplicate entries or a case that was originally assigned to Santa Cruz County, turns out to belong to another county," says St. John. "Our health department checks the added cases each day and reports any errors to the State. I’m sure there could be other reasons that a county has negative cases but in my experience, those are the two top reasons."

St. John adds that Santa Cruz County is working to make testing more accessible. Last week, the county launched its testing blitz.

This weekend, the testing blitz continued. St. John tells KGUN9 that between two sites, one in Rio Rico and one in Patagonia, a total of 985 tests were completed Friday and Saturday.

According to St. John, those tests will most likely be included on the state website by Thursday or Friday.

"At the earliest, we could start putting in the results tomorrow," says St. John. "We put them in over the next three or four days as we receive the results, download them, verify them, and our priority is calling the individuals that got tested."

As of Sunday, Santa Cruz County has reported a total of 2,608 COVID-19 cases out of 8,741 tests. About a quarter of tests in the county have come back positive.

Originally posted on KGUN9 August 2, 2020.

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