Johnson County EOC on Current Numbers, Antibody Tests

The Johnson County COVID-19 Emergency Operations Center (EOC) had their weekly media briefing Friday to update them on the corona virus issue within the county.

Public Health Nurse Manager Trisha Thompson said numbers had not changed this week, with the county still at 11 confirmed positive cases and 4 probable cases.

Fourteen have recovered and there has been one death.

As of Friday the county has tested 143 people for the virus.

County Health Officer Dr. Mark Schueler said he’s glad to see no new COVID-19 activity within the county, and that it appears people are dealing mostly with fatigue, restlessness and frustration more than the illness, but it is all part of the necessary process.

He discussed a new anti body test that will soon be available in the county and why it might be valuable tool in fighting the virus.

Dr. Schueler said there is limited data because the antibody tests were hurried through the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under emergency conditions, but there were 700 known positive patients from the nasal swab test that were tested with the antibody test.

Using that as a control group, the test would detect antibodies in people who had it about 88% of the time, but also rule out COVID-19 accurately about 99% of the time.

The test should be readily available to the public through the healthcare center within the next couple of weeks.