Blaine County has a moment, a small window, to get ahead of the virus spread; most winter seasonal workers have gone home, the people haven’t quite started coming back from winter homes, and many businesses aren’t operating, so less workers are driving in daily from other counties. I believe that we can’t squander this moment. We need to ramp up testing exponentially immediately.
Korea aggressively tested its citizens, even those who weren’t showing symptoms. Korea is succeeding in stopping the spread of the virus. Italy did not do aggressive testing and now its hospitals are over-burdened and they are letting many people die without treatment.
It appears that many, many people can be not showing symptoms but have the disease and can be passing it on to others. Anyone who has been in contact with any confirmed COVID-19 case or site should be tested immediately. All first responders should be tested immediately. Anyone who works in an open business, such as a grocery store, daycare, drycleaners, or restaurant, should be tested immediately. Anyone in the healthcare system, from the ER to dentists, should be tested immediately. Anyone who has had personal contact with clients in the past two weeks, such as hair stylists, masseuses, trainers, ski instructors, etc., should be tested immediately. Anyone who has gone to a grocery store in the past two weeks should be tested immediately. Anyone who has had a family member go to a grocery store, or bank, or other public business, should be tested immediately. Anyone who wants to be tested should be tested.
We have testing options. The University of Washington virology lab tweeted out that they have excess capacity to test anyone in the U.S. with mail-in samples. There are now FDA-approved 45-minute tests. Quest Diagnostics charges just $92 for a private test through a private doctor; 15-minute tests are in the works.
As people return to the Valley for the summer season, either for construction and recreation jobs or their summer homes, they should all be tested as they arrive and asked to self-quarantine until the results are in. There should be a second drive-through testing station set up at the southern hospital campus, and people who have come in by plane or on Highway 75 directed to this testing site. We might have to retrofit one specific hotel to quarantine those who can’t quarantine in a private home. Possibly then identified infected people and milder cases could be better managed in such a facility rather than overburdening our hospital and ER.
This will mean a future faster for our Valley for citizens and for our economy. Blaine County can either be a long-term hotspot of infection, with people continuing to infect each other over time, and a crushed tourist economy with no business for years, or we can nip this in the bud and transform ourselves into a safe place to be. We can re-open restaurants and stores earlier as people are either confirmed of having had the virus (even without symptoms), presumably having some immunity for at least a year, or being virus-free. Aggressive expanded testing now is the answer.
https://telluridemagazine.com/covid-19-testing-in-telluride-and-san-miguel-county/