Employers grapple with to test or not to test
Little clear guidance offered on role firms play in any reopening
As the country reopens, employers are looking into how to safely bring back their workers. One recurring question: Should they be tested for the new coronavirus?
Some businesses are moving ahead. In Indianapolis, familyowned Shapiro’s Delicatessen tested about 25 employees in its parking lot this month.
Amazon plans to spend as much as $1 billion this year to regularly test its workforce while laying the groundwork to build its own lab near the Cincinnati airport.
Las Vegas casinos are testing thousands of employees as they prepare to return to work, collecting nasal samples in convention halls.
And MLB, eager to begin its season, is proposing a detailed regimen that involves testing players and critical staff members multiple times a week.
While public health experts and government officials have emphasized that widespread testing will be critical to reopening, there is little clear guidance from state and federal agencies on the role employers should play in detecting and tracking COVID-19. As a result, businesses are largely on their own in sorting out whether to test — and how to do it — to reassure employees and customers. For now, many companies are just waiting.
“It is a really hard conversation because people want absolutes:
‘If I do this, will it guarantee I’ll have a safe workplace?’ None of the testing is going to provide that right now,” said John Constantine, chief executive of Arcpoint Franchise Group, a nationwide lab network offering virus testing to employers. He added that if done smartly, testing could reduce health risks. “Even if it’s not perfect, some testing is better than no testing.”
Despite rapid advancements in testing, there are still limitations. Diagnostic tests, for example, only detect infections during a certain period. And while blood tests administered after an infection can find antibodies that might offer some immunity, they should not be used alone to make decisions about when people can return to work, the Association of Public Health Laboratories and Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists warned this month.
Some companies have been sensitive about announcing such plans because of the shortages that left many patients and health care workers unable to be tested in hard-hit areas. While capacity has dramatically increased in recent weeks, it is unclear whether labs can keep up with demand if employers nationwide repeatedly test workers.
Some public health officials say broad-based testing might have unintended consequences.
“We don’t want people to get a false sense of security,” said Karen Landers, a district medical officer with the Alabama Department of Public Health, which is not recommending employers test all workers as they come back. “You might have a negative now and later be exposed.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not offered guidelines on the issue, although it released checklists to help various industries decide when to reopen. A checklist for workplaces asks if monitoring is in place, noting that businesses should implement procedures to check employees daily.
Many employers have adopted protective measures like checking temperatures, disinfecting surfaces after every shift, requiring masks and social distancing.
For employers trying to decide whether to test staff, their decisions may depend on how much contact workers have with one another and how prevalent the virus is in the surrounding community.