Homeland security chief: Repeat tests turn up in COVID stats

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COVID-19 remains a situation in the United States, but St. Mary Parish seems to be weathering the storm.
With 35 deaths as of Friday, St. Mary Parish Homeland Security and Office of Emergency Preparedness Director David Naquin explained the process his office engages tracking the virus locally.
“We get the names of the people who test positive,” Naquin said. “I can tell you for a fact today (Friday) … these are tests that were run that were negatives, but the positives were Chinaberry Street (in Franklin). That’s the nursing home. This goes back to May 27.”
St. Mary Parish cases from June 1 numbered 45 in 17 days. “Two a day,” Naquin said. “This group isn’t backlogs. The backlogs (will be released) either Friday or Saturday, when nobody reports it, until they see the numbers and they go crazy on a Monday morning.”
There was an initial scare when total Louisiana tests showed some 400 new positives over two days each, and more accruing. “But what good does it do to dump test results from two months ago?” Naquin said. “The person’s either dead or has recovered. So correct the problem, but don’t put the numbers in because it makes it look like we’ve got a spike going on, and that’s what happened.
“They called it a ‘dump,’” he said. “They realized they made an error in not reporting. So they released them all, boom, with no explanation, nothing.”
Naquin stressed that there are new cases, two on Wednesday, in Berwick and Morgan City. “We have a pretty good idea that when we get them like that, that’s not a dump. What we tried to get them (Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals) to give us the date of the test, because it helps us a lot.
“The two prior out-of-parish hospitals, a person had been there for 30 days and passed away,” he continued. “But because they lived in St. Mary, it’s one of our cases.”
Out of 360 cases, Naquin’s office has identified 78 as “multiple cases.” Particularly, he said nursing homes test residents and if positive, they are moved to a COVID wing of the facility. “To get out of the wing they want two negative tests … just so they can get out away from all the sick people,” Naquin explained.
“So they do a second test, he’s still positive. That’s another case. We have 78 of those, and that’s ones we count.
“Two people were listed (in positive case results) 10 times,” Naquin said. “Three with four positives, eight with three positives, 35 with four positives That was 68 cases two weeks ago.
“There’s no logic.”
St. Mary Parish specifically, Naquin said he believes “we’re in great shape” overall.
Testing facilities are listed on the OEP website and Facebook page.