Growing numbers of cases of COVID-19 in Nebraska is largely the result of additional testing.

Testing ramped up over the last several days. Nebraska Medicine and the Nebraska Public Health Lab have both increased testing, the Douglas County Health Department said last Sunday, and CHI Health and private labs have also started to provide test results.

“This knowledge will allow us to better respond to the outbreak,” Douglas County Health Director Dr. Adi Pour said in a statement.

As more people receive tests, more cases are detected, which will give health officials a sense of the scope of the problem.

“This is a major step toward measuring the extent of this major public health challenge,” Pour said. “The other will be for the community to embrace social distancing. We need people to stay home as much as possible.”

The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services issued a health alert network update last Sunday announcing a change in the algorithm for determining who is given a COVID-19 test.

DHHS said that the state’s test capacity stands at a little over a thousand tests in a day, which is broken down as follows:

• CHI Health – Creighton Core Lab: up to 94 tests per run, up to three runs per day.

• Regional Pathology Service Lab: 280 tests per day.

• Nebraska Public Health Lab: up to 400 per day.

• Commercial Labs (LabCorp, Quest, Mayo Clinic, ARUP, etc.): about 100 tests per day.

The updated guidance says for patients of CHI and its affiliated network providers to send tests to the Creighton lab. RPS at the University of Nebraska Medical Center should use the RPS lab, and other labs should follow the recommendations for prioritization for COVID-19 testing.

The Nebraska Public Health Lab is still prioritizing testing statewide for health care workers, and suspected COVID-19 infected patients from group settings and other vulnerable populations.

DHHS is no longer requiring a respiratory pathogen panel and influenza testing before administering a COVID-19 test, unless it is necessary for triage.

However, that doesn’t mean a patient should necessarily expect to be tested for the virus, even if they are showing symptoms.

“While there may be asymptomatic infection in the general population, the likelihood of a positive COVID-19 test is low: testing in such patients is discouraged, unless clinical and epidemiologic factors argue for a test,” DHHS said in the Sunday memo.

“Patients with a clear source of exposure (e.g., household member of a known lab-confirmed case) and a clinical presentation consistent with COVID-19 can be clinically diagnosed and managed with self-isolation without a confirmatory test.”