A Gonzaga-affiliated Spokane County resident, who has been limiting their contact with others, tested negative for COVID-19, the Spokane Regional Health District confirmed Thursday evening.

Spokane County has no confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus at this time, and the risk to Spokane County for COVID-19 remains low, a news release from the health district says.

The test result comes as the state reported its 11th death from the coronavirus with some 70 other cases reported. State health officials did confirm the first case of COVID-19 east of the Cascades on Thursday, in a Grant County resident who is in critical condition at a Wenatchee hospital. The rest of the cases are in King and Snohomish counties.

Vice President Mike Pence, who is leading the country’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak, arrived in Washington state Thursday evening to meet with Gov. Jay Inslee.

Test results for counties in eastern Washington have lagged in recent days. The Spokane County resident was tested on Saturday, Feb. 29, but the health district did not receive results until Thursday evening.

The Northeast Tri-County Health District still has not received test results for a Stevens County resident, which resulted in the Colville School District closing all schools for three days this week for disinfection. The person who was tested as well as their close contacts are all in isolation awaiting those test results. Colville schools re-opened on Thursday.

Initially, state health officials claimed the Shoreline lab could turn tests around quickly, eventually running samples for 100 people a day when it got up and running last Friday. Today, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health acknowledged that there is a backlog for tests at the state lab which they expect to be corrected by Friday. The University of Washington has begun testing samples for the disease, including the Grant County patient’s case confirmed today.

The Grant County patient who tested positive for the respiratory disease has no travel history outside of the country, a release from Grant County Health District stated, indicating that the disease might have been acquired locally. Close contacts of the patient have been asked to quarantine away from others, the health district’s release said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention loosened guidelines to test patients for COVID-19 this week, to include patients showing symptoms without travel histories or known close contact to confirmed cases, which will lead to an increase in testing in the coming weeks.