Area residents have an opportunity to get tested for COVID-19 through a local effort in Guthrie County this weekend.

Test Guthrie County is an initiative in partnership with Guthrie County Public Health, Guthrie Family Medicine Center and Guthrie County Hospital and Clinics. With increased testing the community partners hope it will help get the county back to its normal way of life. Public Health Director Jotham Arber says the tests performed this weekend can benefit those who wish to give plasma or help COVID-19 patients, and it will provide crucial data for their department, “Honestly, those tests help us to do something called ‘zero prevalence’ in our community. So we can see how many individuals have had it and have not known that they necessarily have had it and that helps us to estimate what level of community still has the susceptibility to this virus. Even though we’re not entirely sure on the immunity factor yet, knowing how many people have it is always a good thing to know when you’re looking at the fall with flu and coronavirus still being here.”

Test Guthrie County will be happening at Guthrie County Public Health located at 2002 State Street in Guthrie Center tomorrow and Sunday from 8 a.m-3 p.m.