2nd Covid-19 test back negative

Alissa Eckert, MS; Dan Higgins, MAMS
This illustration, created at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reveals ultrastructural morphology exhibited by coronaviruses. Note the spikes that adorn the outer surface of the virus, which impart the look of a corona surrounding the virion, when viewed electron microscopically. A novel coronavirus, named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China in 2019. The illness caused by this virus has been named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Nocona General Hospital CEO Lance Meekins informed The Nocona News and Nocona ISD administrators Thursday morning that the second Covid-19 test came back negative.

The patient, who had previously been tested as being negative, had recently traveled to Italy to visit her husband who was in the service, leaving that country shortly before it went into nationwide quarantine.

After visiting with family in Nocona, which including school-age children, and new testing protocols being published, the women contacted NGH and was tested. She, and the family she was visiting, then went into voluntary self-quarantine awaiting the results.

Because her temperature at the time the specimen were taken did not meet Centers for Disease Control thresholds the test was not submitted to a state lab. Instead he had to be shipped to California over the weekend, at NGH’s expense, to be run.