Pitkin County and Aspen Valley Hospital officials said Thursday during a community meeting that testing in the county will switch from the antibody tests and starting Friday will focus on people with even mild COVID-19 symptoms.
Those with symptoms will need to call their primary care physician first, or if they don’t have one they can call the hospital to get an appointment to be tested, said hospital CEO Dave Ressler. He did not say what the cost would be associated with testing, but that “we won’t let cost get in the way of someone getting tested.”
Dr. Bradley Holmes, who has been taking care of patients who have the coronavirus at Aspen Valley Hospital, also said they do not want anyone who feels they have symptoms to stay home and not be tested.
Pitkin County Manager Jon Peacock said at the moment they are not going to use the 1,000 antibody tests the county acquired from a Denver-area company. When the tests were acquired, the FDA had not given their full approval, he said, adding that questions remain about the test’s overall reliability and results.
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Peacock said the pilot program from last week with the tests were fine, but they would rely on professional researcher certification (PRC) tests for the community testing and part of the box-in strategy.
“The good news is the tests did well, but there remains significant concerns about the accuracy,” he said. “As a results we have come to the conclusion that before using the test in the community we want to see more validation from the FDA. All our energy now is on working with PRC testing.”
This is a developing story that will be updated.
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