Humboldt County continues postmortem COVID-19 testing

HUMBOLDT COUNTY, Calif. (KIEM) – Humboldt County Public Health recently encouraged the use of postmortem COVID-19 testing by the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputy Health Officer Dr. Josh Ennis clarified that this method of testing has been available throughout the entirety of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Ennis said Public Health has already been receiving specimens from the Coroner’s Office. The testing provides another system that is looking for more disease in the community.

Based on hospitalizations, Dr. Ennis believes there is more disease going undetected.

“It is certainly possible that we have missed some deaths. Again because of the timing of how many cases there were in the Bay Area versus here, when the original shelter in place order went in place, we were able to get a lot of things in place. I would suspect that if we missed any it is not a large number,” Ennis said.