Sedgwick County works to bolster coronavirus testing after sluggish start

Sedgwick County commissioners are pushing for more COVID-19 testing in the Wichita area as businesses reopen during the coronavirus pandemic, citing concerns that testing should be available to people as they return to work.

The commission approved spending $250,000 for mobile COVID-19 testing Wednesday. That roving site will be available only to people who have coronavirus symptoms, the same as the health department’s testing site st 2716 W. Central in west Wichita.

Commissioner David Dennis said it’s unfair for the county to expect businesses to open back up without employers knowing whether workers are carriers of the virus.

“I had a meeting with businesses last week, and they want to test their employees before they bring them back in. But we don’t have any way of doing that. We’re not testing any well people right now,” Dennis said.

One idea Dennis said he’s open to adopting is antibody testing, although he said he would prefer active-virus swab tests could be administered by the county.

“Somehow, we need these employers to have the confidence that when they bring their employees back that they have some kind of a test,” he said.

Commission Chair Pete Meitzner said he has heard similar asks from large area employers, “but if you’re asking us to provide testing materials and everything else to every employer, that could be a sizable chore.”

In three months, the Sedgwick County Health Department has tested 1,990 people — an average of 166 people a week. But it now has more than 10,000 tests available, and Dennis wants the county to loosen its restrictions so anybody who wants to get a test can get one.

“I can’t tell the business leaders, ‘Hey, put your people back to work. We’re ready to go to work,’ but we’re not going to test anybody,” he said.

Sedgwick County has lagged other large counties in Kansas when it comes to coronavirus testing, and Kansas ranks near the bottom of the country in per-capita testing rates.

If the county health department won’t come up with a way to test more people, Dennis said, the commission needs to take matters into its own hands.

“What does it take for us to move forward in testing?” he said. “We keep saying, ‘We can’t, we can’t, we can’t.’ I want to hear, ‘We can, we can, we can.’”

He suggested contracting with an outside vendor or purchasing antibody testing materials, which county staff and health department officials rejected as it’s an unproven test, even though it has been given emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration.

“One of the concerns we would have if we were to choose to do antibody testing, in addition to the virus testing, is that we would be potentially giving a false sense of security to those businesses,” Deputy County Manager Tim Kaufman said.

County Manager Tom Stolz said the county health department isn’t doing asymptomatic testing because that would fall outside the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s guidelines.

“It’s possible within the next week or two that we may want to have a certain number of hours at [the] West Central [Health Department clinic] where anyone can come,” Stolz said.

As for antibody testing, the county could go that route, he said, but the materials may not be available until July.

“We want to test as many people as we can,” Stolz said.

Another available testing option could be a partnership with Wichita State University. The county is in early discussions with school leaders about opening a testing site on WSU’s Innovation Campus.

The health department also is working on a plan to test people without symptoms as early as June 1, Stolz said, although it’s unclear whether people will be able to volunteer for testing.

As part of a scientific study of the virus’ prevalence in Sedgwick County, the health department will test 1,500 people at random every two to three weeks until the virus is gone, he said.

Also in the works is the mobile testing site approved Wednesday. It will be a van that can be set up in areas with the lowest testing rates and where people have transportation challenges. It could be ready within a couple of weeks.

Stolz said the county will continue to explore all avenues to increase testing in Sedgwick County.

“Whatever it takes to get high-volume testing,” he said. “And if antibody (tests) are the answer, we should take a hard look at that.”

This story was originally published May 20, 2020 at 4:28 PM.