The first case of COVID-19 was confirmed late Monday afternoon for Isabella County.

Confirmation of the positive test result came from a Central Michigan District Health Department press release.

There was no demographic information about who tested positive, only that it was the fourth positive test of the health department's member counties of Isabella, Clare, Gladwin, Osceola, Roscommon and Arenac. The other three positive tests were in Clare, Gladwin and Roscommon counties.

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It's the second time that a positive test was connected to Isabella County, but only the first confirmed case. Last Thursday, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services announced during its 2 p.m. updates that a positive test result had come from the county. Two hours later, they pulled that result and said that the test was indeterminate and sent to the Centers for Disease Control for further testing.

There was no information in the health department's press release on whether the positive Isabella County case was a new one, or confirmation of that test via the CDC.

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Compared to metro Detroit, the mid-Michigan appears to have comparatively few positive tests for COVID-19. That might not be a matter that the area is relatively free of the virus, however.

"Testing supplies are very low, the media to send the tests is very low, as well," said Rachel Blizzard, McLaren's marketing and fund development, said in a text message. It's a line she's shared consistently when asked about testing of local suspected cases.

The issue came up at Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's press conference announcing her order Monday. Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, chief medical officer of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, said that the state lab, which has done most of the testing so far, has ramped up capacity and can test 1,000 samples a day.

To that, you can add that four hospitals -- none closer than Lansing -- are testing their own samples, as are a handful of private labs. MidMichigan Health sends their low-risk samples to a private lab through their affiliate network with the University of Michigan. McLaren, Blizzard said, sends their samples to the state lab.

That means the capacity to process samples is there, but the test materials isn't, leaving open the question of how many people have gotten COVID-19 tests.

Blizzard didn't give a specific answer, but added that the number is small because the test materials is low. MidMichigan Health's spokeswoman Millie Jezior said 456 samples were sent for testing across their entire network.

That was as of March 16.

The Central Michigan District Health Department was asked for an update Monday morning. When last asked on March 18, it reported sending 67-75 samples from its member counties, which include Isabella, Clare, Gladwin, Roscommon, Osceola and Arenac counties.

Their public information officer, Melissa DeRoche, responded with an email saying that MDHHS isn't sharing how many people it has tested, but has increased its capacity to handle test samples.

Mid-Michigan District Health Department was contacted for information also. No one from MMDHD responded, by email or phone.

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