Health officials proactively test critical workers for virus

    Cherokee County health officials have begun proactively testing critical infrastructure workers for exposure to COVID-19.
    The testing marks a shift in how officials have been tackling the coronavirus. Prior to last week, they were limited to testing people who felt they needed to be screened due to symptoms or contact with others who tested positive. County officials are now proactively seeking asymptomatic critical infrastructure workers for voluntary testing to better understand community spread.
    “There’s a lot of advantages to [proactively] identifying exposures instead of just waiting for positive cases to come to us,” Health Director David Badger said. “Identifying [positive cases] early limits the potential community exposure. The more we test, the more we know. The more we know, the more we can help identify other potential positives and mitigate spread of the virus.”
    The U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention defines critical infrastructure workers as those who work in law enforcement, emergency services, food and agriculture, intelligence gathering, hazardous material, informational technology, transportation, critical manufacturing, energy and staff employed in government facilities. County officials started contacting supervisors and managers in those various fields last week, seeking volunteers to be screened.
    “We can never force anyone to be tested,” Badger said, adding that testing serves several purposes. “We must have screenings to understand the prevalence of the virus within our communities. It also gives us a chance to further educate people on hygiene, social distancing, signs and symptoms.”
    The county mainly receives test kits from Laboratory Corp. of America in Burlington. The county does not pay for the kits upfront. However, the person being tested must pay the cost of the lab test, which may be covered by their insurance.
    LabCorp also announced the availability of COVID-19 at-home testing kits, with access prioritized for health-care workers and first responders due to limited supplies.
    County officials are also limited in the number of people they can proactively test, which is why they are focusing on critical infrastructure workers to start. On April 29, the first day of proactive testing, officials screened more than 30 people.
    Officials plan to test up to 100 people per week for the foreseeable future, depending on supply and demand. Test results are normally returned within 72 hours.
    “Each person took less than two minutes to test,” Emergency Management Director Robin Caldwell said. “I was quite impressed with how smoothly it went.”
    Asymptomatic citizens not deemed critical infrastructure workers who want to be screened for COVID-19 are encouraged to contact their primary care provider.