At last night’s regularly scheduled Cedar Key Commission Meeting, Mayor Heath Davis devoted thirty-five minutes to public comment about the COVID-19 virus, not leaving the topic until everyone who wished to speak did so. COVID-19 virus testing was foremost on everyone’s mind. And…answers they did receive! Cedar Key will undergo three different kinds of test: wastewater, serology, and nasal testing.
WASTEWATER TESTING
Wastewater testing will occur, with the help of the Cedar Key Water and Sewer District. This testing checks sewage for the concentration of viral RNA in wastewater samples and can help track the path of the virus beyond Cedar Key. Nature Coast Biological Station Director Mike Allen and Dr. Mike Pfaller, physician, pathologist, and Co-Director of the Molecular Epidemiology and Fungus Testing Laboratory at Iowa State, both Cedar Key residents, spoke to the issue. They noted that the wastewater testing is not the answer to the viral dilemma; it is a part of the larger puzzle. A positive reading would mean some person using the CKWSD wastewater system could have COVID-19; a negative reading could be a false reading.
For further reading, click here:https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00973-x
UF TESTING: SEROLOGY AND NASAL SWAB
Vice Mayor Sue Colson spoke to the Department of Health about her concern that Cedar Key has no baseline data on COVID-19. The DOH could offer no testing help.
Not taking no for an answer, Colson spoke to Dr. Mike Allen. Allen, working with University of Florida researchers have agreed to test two ways in Cedar Key: serology and nasal testing. The serology test looks for antibodies. The nasal swab checks for the disease, the COVID-19. Allen sees the use of testing in Cedar Key, a closed or semi-closed site, as a good opportunity to get baseline data. Currently the University of Florida has COVID-19 research projects providing the same tests in the Villages in Sumter County and P.K. Young School in Gainesville.
UF will offer the testing to anyone in Cedar Key who wishes it. UF staff needs 200, and hope for 400 or more, participants. The more participants, the more useful the data.
Those who wish to be tested would complete paperwork before the testing. All information is patient protected by HIPAA, the United States Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. No personal information at all is shared; it remains anonymous.
UF staff would set up tents in the Cedar Key Community Center parking lot with their equipment. Participants would drive through an be tested. Paperwork done beforehand will expedite the process.
UF staff will return in four weeks to retest the participants and further their research bases.
