Guest Article: Weekly COVID-19 Testing – Using a Lab

The federal vaccination mandate states that companies with more than 100 employees are required to impose a vaccine mandate, meaning all workers have to demonstrate that they are vaccinated. Employers with less than 100 employees can chose whether or not to mandate vaccines, however, most schools have more than 100 employees, and the vaccine mandate has been a sore spot for some. While there are medical/religious exemptions (or accommodations) that an employer can implement, many are opting to impose the mandate. This mandate though, may run the risk of losing key employees especially as there is a shortage of substitute workers such as teachers, aides, nurses, clerical staff, custodial workers, food service workers, and bus drivers.

With limited and often changing guidance from the State, school districts across the Island have adopted vaccine mandates for employees and for those that are not vaccinated, weekly testing. Schools now, in addition to providing education, have to make COVID-19 testing available and implement administrative procedures to tracking such testing, as well as ensuring that this medical information will be adequately protected. As some schools are not equipped to provide weekly testing, a local Long Island company may be able to provide assistance to school districts.

Acutis Diagnostics is located in Hicksville, and they have a dedicated, state-of-the art 40,000 square foot facility. They have processed well over 1.5 million COVID samples since the beginning of the pandemic. They were one of the first commercial labs in the country to offer COVID testing, having commenced services in March 2020. Currently, they are averaging under 12 hours from receipt of sample to result, and with their central LI location, their network of local couriers can be dispatched as needed to retrieve samples from any location desired. In this manner, they can provide schools with industry-leading turnaround time. They have made considerable investments to ensure that they have the latest in equipment, personnel, reagents and supplies which allows them to provide services at a very competitive price and maintain a high level of service. They are licensed by the New York State Department of Health and accredited by the College of American Pathologists (CAP), which means that their lab is held to the highest possible quality standards.

For school districts, they have developed a turn-key approach to this type of testing. Since Acutis Diagnostics already has experience not only with laboratory testing, but with research as well, they can work with school districts to help them design an optimum testing regimen, if desired. Such programs can include the participation of ancillary service providers to schools such as drivers, construction workers or food service teams. They can draw on other programs to provide optionality to school districts and update the frequency and percentage of testing of a given population as conditions dictate. Their technology team has developed a number of approaches to simplify the administration of the testing program which includes receiving uploads of both student and staff demographic information along with all of the necessary consent forms. These can be uploaded to their main laboratory information system where orders can be created in real time when a given individual is scheduled for testing. Acutis Diagnostics has field teams that are equipped with collection supplies, PPE, and ancillary consumables so that sample collection can be done efficiently and waiting times reduced.

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