A COVID-19 swab test is dropped into a platic bag following a scheduled drive-up Tuesday afternoon at Mary’s Corner Medical Clinic.
Monday was the first day Lewis County recommended elementary school students start attending in-person classes, and more and more schools are bringing students in despite the county’s classification as “high-risk.”
In terms of how that will impact COVID-19 testing efforts, Valley View Health Center CEO Gaelon Spradley said it’s not clear. In-person classes will likely increase the spread of the virus, but it’ll also lighten the load of healthcare workers parenting during the pandemic.
“We’ve had several employees whose availability to work has been really restricted because of schools (closing),” Spradley said. “I think when school returns to in-person education, it’s probably going to help our staffing model.”
Valley View is seeing an uptick in people getting tested for COVID-19, but Spradley said it isn’t overwhelming at the moment. The clinic is closely monitoring turn-around times for their tests, which so far have stayed around two to three days. If that changes, Spradley said they have back-up plans, like sending samples to a different, faster lab.
On a county level, Public Health officials are preparing for schools reopening by trying to ensure all students have access to fast and free testing. The department received $2 million this month from the state Department of Health, some of which will go toward covering costs for COVID-19 testing of school-aged children, according to Lewis County Public Health and Social Services Director J.P. Anderson. The partnership will be between the county and Northwest Pediatrics, but won’t involve testing to schools.
“If we believe a student needs to be tested … we don’t want them on school property,” Anderson said.
Last month, schools who brought students back to classrooms saw positive cases within the first week. But Anderson said positive cases have been dealt with successfully.
“I feel that the response has been fantastic by the schools,” Anderson told county commissioners Wednesday. “We had a positive case locally, talked to the school, talked to the people that were around that student, and there were no close contacts.”
Anderson said in this instance, the school’s plan — formulated with the help of the county and their infection prevention experts — worked, meaning minimal community testing was necessary.
But there are signs that increased demand in testing could be coming. After recent surges in positive cases, Thurston County experienced hour-long lines at testing facilities, as reported by The Olympian.
“I feel like we’ve got adequate testing opportunities, but I have heard some saying their test took six days, or voicing frustration around being able to get a test or knowing where to do that, and I know those things are real too,” Anderson said.
Several testing sites in Lewis County are seeing turnaround times at around two to three days. Mary’s Corner Medical Clinic in Morton, which sends their samples to LabCorp, reported a three to five-day rate. RiteAid in Chahalis, however, is telling patients to expect to wait anywhere from two to seven days for results.
Residents without a primary care provider are likely to have more difficulty getting a test. Lewis County’s website lists eight locations for testing, although many require residents to already be a patient at the clinic. And for residents with a primary care provider, there are actually more than eight locations — Valley View, for example, can test established patients at several of their locations, but only one is open for walk-in patients.
As winter approaches, the county also plans to utilize their “strike team,” partnering with Valley View or Northwest Pediatrics to respond quickly to outbreaks, often setting up pop-up testing sites. The strategy began in May, and has so far responded to several employers, congregate settings, and the Lewis County Jail.
“Typically we can get things mobilized next morning. In fact, we did one this morning,” Anderson said Thursday.
In terms of daily testing, Lewis County is below the state’s average rate of 237.3 daily tests per 100,000 residents. The county is at 168.1 as of Friday — a rate almost identical to Thurston County’s. Leading the pack is Walla Walla County at 383.6, while Okanogan County has the lowest rate at 57.8. Lewis County is generally in line with neighboring counties in terms of testing. Although many of our neighbors are also in the high-risk category due to virus transmission, Lewis County has a higher new case rate than many of those counties.
The spread, Anderson said, is happening in the “little spaces in between” regulated areas.
“A lot of what we hear about is two employees that aren’t transferring COVID at work. It’s when they drive to work without masks on, or when they take a smoke break together,” he said.
To address it, and avoid surges in positive cases and testing demand, public health experts in the county say a culture change is necessary — people need to wear masks not because they’re told to, but because they choose to.
