GRANT COUNTY — COVID-19 testing sites throughout Grant County and in Othello next week will focus on agricultural workers, but also will be open to the general public.

Tests will be conducted by Medical Teams International, a non-profit humanitarian aid and global health organization. The testing clinics will not turn anyone away, but were designed to give state health officials a more detailed picture of the spread of the virus among migrant workers, wrote Frank Ameduri, state Department of Health Public Information Officer, in an email.

However, Ameduri noted, the impact of COVID-19 on the agricultural industry, coupled with an early frost this year has caused many H-2A temporary migrant workers to leave the state, so it’s unclear how complete the dataset will be. But anyone who needs a test can access one relatively easily at any of the state DOH’s scheduled events, Amedori added.

The tests performed at the clinics will be rapid antigen tests produced by BinaxNow, which work by detecting a piece of the virus inside infected people and produce faster results, but also are more likely to have false positives. Anyone with a positive rapid test will then be given a polymerase chain reaction test, the slow-but-certain industry standard, to confirm the positive results.

In northern Grant County, a test site will be at Quincy High School from 3-7 p.m. on Nov. 17.

In southern Grant County, residents can get tested at the First Baptist Church in Royal City from 1-7 p.m. Nov. 17 and at Wahluke High School in Mattawa from 1-7 p.m. Nov. 18.

Testing will also be available at the Othello Church of the Nazarene in Othello from 1-7 p.m. Nov. 19 and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 20.

Emry Dinman can be reached via email at edinman@columbiabasinherald.com.