Patient being tested at the Cape Cod Healthcare drive-thru facility at Cape Cod Community College
HYANNIS – Barnstable County health officials are confident that rapid COVID-19 testing capabilities will be coming to Cape Cod soon.
“I would tend to guess that you’re going to start to see like Cape Cod Healthcare and maybe some of the other organizations that do some primary care service look at that instrument for at least one or two of their facilities,” said Barnstable County Department of Health and Environment Director, Sean O’Brien.
“I think what this instrument is able to do is provide a five or a ten minute test and that would be fantastic and that well make this a lot easier going forward and then also as we start to move toward the fall if there is concern regarding this thing kind of re-surging again it allows for a more rapid testing function in place, which could benefit very much as well,” he said.
On-the-spot COVID-19 testing was launched at a CVS site in Lowell that uses the new Abbott ID NOW COVID-19 test.
With the launch of this site, Massachusetts is the third state where CVS has launched rapid testing sites, joining Georgia and Rhode Island.
Governor Charlie Baker also launched a COVID-19 tracing program, which will focus on tracing the contacts of confirmed positive patients to alert them that they have been in contact with someone who has the virus.
O’Brien said that he thinks the tracing program is a great opportunity and resource to have in the fight against the coronavirus.
“By working with a wide range of partners, we have dramatically increased Massachusetts’ COVID-19 testing capacity, and we are grateful to CVS for their partnership in launching this new rapid testing site,” said Baker.
“This continued expansion of testing, along with our new efforts around community tracing, will enable the Commonwealth to better track and slow the spread of the virus.”
O’Brien said that health officials have heard that nationwide case levels are starting to level off, however he believes that Cape Cod is a little behind New York at this time.
“We’re starting to hear reports about New York, California, Washington State, where we are potentially starting to see the case load start to level off,” said O’Brien.
“We think we may be about a week behind, maybe a week and a half behind what we are seeing in New York right now.”
He added that it is important for residents to continue practicing social distancing and follow the governor’s orders to stay home.
Health officials said that these precautions are working and will help slow the spread of the virus.
Monday saw 77 cars come through the drive-thru testing facility at Cape Cod Community College, bringing the total number of cars up to 1,500.
The number of cars does not exactly represent the number of people who have been tested.
Currently the testing turnaround at the facility is about two days.
Officials said they are working to speed up the process.
Falmouth and Barnstable have the most confirmed cases on Cape Cod, according to O’Brien.
He said he believes this is due to the fact that those are the two biggest towns on Cape Cod.
The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency handles plans regarding mass fatalities in the state and they have begun preparations to handle the situation.
MEMA has begun to set up a facility in the Lowell area to handle mass fatalities, however there has not been a discussion about a facility on Cape Cod.
County health officials are supporting plans that would help house homeless individuals on Cape Cod.
Currently there are plans being worked on by multi-agency coordination centers to aid the homeless however are plans are still being developed.
As the peak of the virus approaches, O’Brien is reminding people to stay inside as much as they can.
He added that if people have to go outside, it is strongly encouraged that you wear a mask.
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