by Sarah ThomackSt. Joseph PostThe Andrew County Health Department will be offering a drive-thru COVID-19 testing event on Friday.&nbsp;Andrew County currently has 17 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with five reported as recovered.&nbsp;Jayne White is the Communicable Disease Nurse at the Andrew County Health Department. White says the health department has been wanting to do community testing for awhile."Andrew County is a neighboring community with Buchanan County so, with the increases in cases there, while our number is still low, we have seen a significant increase in the last week, week and a half,” White says. “So (we're) just trying to get a better pulse on what’s going on exactly in our community and if we’re seeing a community outbreak or community spread problem or if this is just kind of to be expected."White says anyone can get tested even if they don’t have symptoms."Any of our high risk populations, especially the folks that feel they could have potentially been exposed or have those kind of situations where they are a high risk for exposure, even if they’re asymptomatic,” White says. “Obviously, if you’re having symptoms at all we encourage those folks to get signed up so we can test them and find out what’s going on. But it’s ultimately open to anybody within the community, we just want to get a good picture of our community and what’s going on and what our case volume really looks like."White says as of Monday evening, a little over 100 people were signed up for the 150 tests available. White adds, if all the spots are filled, they will plan another testing event. The drive-thru testing will be held from 3 to 7 p.m. Friday. Pre-registration is required. For more information visit <a href="http://www.andrewcountyhealth.com/index.php/resources/news/570-covid-pr-5-15-20">andrewcountyhealth.com</a>.The event is being conducted by the health department along with Mosaic Life Care-Maryville, Northwest Health Services, the National Guard and community volunteers.

Andrew Co. hosting drive-thru COVID-19 testing to get better idea of local cases