Photos by Deb Gau Medical workers donned protective gear and waited at the curb outside the Avera Tyler hospital on Wednesday, as a line of people drove up to have nasal swabs collected for COVID-19 testing. The community testing event was organized when Lincoln County saw a spike in positive COVID-19 cases after the 4th of July weekend.

TYLER — There’s been community spread of COVID-19 in southwest Minnesota for some time now. But medical providers in Lincoln County said the situation there had gotten especially concerning in the past week or two.

“After the Fourth of July weekend, we saw what we consider a pretty significant spike,” said Dr. Eric Ocampo, a physician at Avera Tyler. “Before the Fourth, we had 11 cases” among Lincoln County residents, he said. Now, the total is at 33.

In response to the increase in positive COVID-19 cases, the city of Tyler and Avera Tyler held a community testing event Wednesday. Organizers said they hoped the event would help find people with the coronavirus, even if they aren’t showing symptoms.

“The pattern for containing the spread is to identify people who have the illness and get them into quarantine as early as possible,” said Dr. Dan Florey, a physician at Avera Tyler.

“We made the decision Monday morning to do community testing,” said Avera Tyler Administrator Allen Anderson. In addition to an increase in confirmed cases, he said the sample collection site at Avera Marshall was starting to see more people from Lincoln County coming to be tested. Holding an event in Tyler would make it easier and more convenient for Lincoln County residents to get tested.

“We wanted to take care of the community,” Anderson said.

Two days was definitely a quick turnaround to organize the event, but Anderson said Tyler had a good “playbook” to follow from last month’s community testing in Marshall. The support of community and local business partners, and volunteers, was also an important help.

“It really did take a number of things to come together,” Anderson said.

Organizers planned for around 300 people to be tested on Wednesday. While the lines outside the Avera Tyler hospital weren’t long around 10 a.m., there was a steady flow of vehicles pulling into the drive-up sample collection site. Community volunteers and Avera staff were ready to help register people and collect nasal swabs to be tested.

While the community testing was scheduled to start at 9 a.m., Ocampo said workers started earlier by collecting samples from Avera Tyler staff. Protecting health providers, and crucial medical services, has been an important focus for Avera Tyler in response to the uptick in COVID-19 cases.

By noon, around 200 samples had been collected, said Stacy Neubeck, communications coordinator at Avera Marshall. More information on the numbers of people tested and the results will likely be released next week, organizers said.

Florey said it’s important for people to remember that, even if their COVID-19 test comes back negative, they could still get sick later.

“A negative test doesn’t mean I have a free pass,” he said. It remains important for people to practice social distancing, wear face coverings in public, and stay home if they are sick.

Anderson said the testing event wasn’t the only way that Avera Tyler was responding to community spread of COVID-19. Avera Tyler has also limited its clinic hours to essential visits only, and has started encouraging more virtual visits. By limiting in-person clinic visits, Avera Tyler can help protect its staff and preserve essential services like the emergency department and long-term care, Anderson said.