Dr. Danny Avula, director of the Henrico and Richmond Health Districts, said Thursday that his department is “encouraging” long-term care facilities to expand testing to include residents who don’t exhibit symptoms of the disease.

“We’ve basically got to act like every patient is positive, regardless of what their test says,” Avula said at a news conference with county officials in front of the county administration building.

However, the new test results allow Canterbury to manage the 35 residents who tested negative separately from those confirmed with the virus, whether they show the symptoms or not.

“You can’t fight what you can’t see,” Wright said, “so knowledge is key in this.”

Jeremiah Davis, an administrator at Canterbury, said in a statement on Thursday that the increase in positive cases was not surprising after the decision on Monday to test everyone in the facility.

“The medical community has acknowledged from the outset of the novel coronavirus pandemic that as testing volume increases, the number of positive COVID-19 cases will also increase,” Davis said. “And as more testing capacity comes available this is proving true, with diagnoses skyrocketing over the past week here in Virginia and nationwide.”