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CCISD hosts COVID testing clinic

Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Testers with MedNext await cars near the end of a drive-through clinic Saturday at Houghton High School. About 135 people got tested at the clinic, part of a statewide effort to catch COVID cases after families returned from spring break.

HOUGHTON — About 135 people came to a drive-through vaccination clinic at Houghton High School Saturday.

The clinic was about one of 60 scheduled statewide to test for COVID in communities where families had recently come back from spring break. The Copper Country Intermediate School District hosted the clinic with assistance from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

“Spring break, off for a while, things were getting more relaxed, and our cases in the state have gone up,” said Dakota Brecht, on-site manager for MedNext, which performed the tests. “We’re keeping a couple COVID cases from being 100 COVID cases in the community.”

People drove up and took rapid antigen tests, which delivered results within 15 minutes. Those who tested positive were asked to come back for a Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test or make arrangements with a provider. The PCR test was expected to deliver results within three to five days, Brecht said.

Several people had come back for testing, Brecht said. That included a couple of people who came back on their own to take the PCR test as a backup.

MedNext has done 700 tests across the Upper Peninsula, including a clinic at Marquette High School. It also has weekly testing sites in places such as Menominee and Sault Ste. Marie.

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