As dropping northwest Iowa temperatures make drive-through COVID-19 testing more challenging, Spencer Hospital and Avera Medical Group Spencer have jointly developed a covered drive-through testing site available to patients whose care providers have placed an order for them to receive a COVID-19 test.

"It's important to emphasize that this testing site is only for people who have an order placed by a local healthcare provider for that individual to be tested," explained Jordan Reed, Spencer Hospital's laboratory services director, in a news release. "This includes someone whose physician is concerned his or her symptoms warrant a COVID-19 test or a patient who requires a test for other medically necessary procedures."

Since the COVID-19 public health emergency began in the spring, warmer temperatures allowed both the clinic and the hospital to offer drive-up testing. This week is the transition week, with some tests still being conducted at AMGS's drive-up testing site and others being directed to the drive-through site.

Spencer Hospital and Avera Medical Group Spencer staff will verify your test order and collect a sample to be analyzed by the lab. Patients will be notified of their test result by their ordering physician or a member of the physician's care team.

After Nov. 30, it's anticipated all ordered COVID-19 tests will be directed to the drive-through site next to the hospital's emergency entrance. It is located adjacent to Spencer Hospital's emergency department entrance, located on Second Avenue East. To access the testing site, turn south onto East Second off East 13th Street, drive up the ambulance ramp toward the hospital, then take two immediate right turns to turn into the hoop building designated for testing.

• 4 more COVID-19 deaths in O'Brien County

O'Brien County saw its number of coronavirus-related deaths increase from 26 to 30 over the past week. Clay County remained at four.

The two-week positivity rate declined slightly over the past seven days. O'Brien County was at 19.2 percent on Wednesday morning, down from 22.9 percent the same time last week. Clay County was down from 21.4 percent to 20.2 percent. Those figures ranked Nos. 57 and 48, respectively, among all 99 counties. Statewide, the positivity rate was down from 22.4 percent last week to 19 percent.

O'Brien County has recorded 1,205 total COVID-19 infections since March, an increase of 89 from last week. Clay County was up from 993 to 1,096 over the same timeframe. Statewide, there have been 24,586 new infections recorded over the last seven days to bring the overall tally to 217,783.

O'Brien County has recorded 725 recoveries while Clay County has tallied 556. Statewide, there have been 122,050 recoveries since the pandemic began.

As of Monday, there were 1,351 Iowans hospitalized with coronavirus-related complications. That number is down from 1,510 the same time last week. Seven were from O'Brien County and 11 were from Clay County.

The statewide death toll is now at 2,271, an increase of 207 from the previous week.