Testing, testing, testing. It's been preached for weeks by everyone from the Governor to health professionals across the country. We need more.
On Wednesday, Mayo Clinic said they were prepared to meet the demand of 5,000 tests per day set forth by Governor Walz.
Thursday on the Morning News with Dave Lee, Dr. David Hilden of Hennepin Healthcare and WCCO's Healthy Matters, said he is optimistic about the announcement.
"I certainly hope that's the case," said Hilden, who is a primary care physician and an acute care hospitalist at HCMC in downtown Minneapolis. "And I think it's realistic, which is not always what people have been hearing me say with you and with others over the past few weeks."
Testing for COVID-19 still remains the biggest challenge in fighting the virus. In Wednesday's update from the Minnesota Department of Health, they noted that so far the number of completed tests in Minnesota is 40,242. 30,634 of those tests have been done by external labs such as HCMC, Mayo and the U of M. In order to know more about the spread of COVID-19, and to relax the stay-at-home orders, the MDH says that number has to increase greatly.
"At the beginning of this thing, we just didn't have ability to test anybody for most of the month of February and early March. Now we we do," said Hilden. "And we're even testing people in our own hospitals. We can get our results back even the same day. There are a few hospitals, including my own at Hennepin, that do same day testing."
The other issue, now months into the pandemic globally, is testing those that were potentially sick and recovered.
"But the problem is, we still don't have all the supplies and the ability to (test) everybody, "Hilden says. "So what? What we're gonna need going forward is is not that kind of testing to see if you're sick right now. What we need is that testing to see if you've been sick in the past. And if you're maybe at least potentially able to go about your business and get back into your jobs and get out the public again and so these tests are very promising, actually. The one that they're doing at the University of Minnesota."
Hilden is referring to an antibody test developed at the University that is being used starting this week. There is also an ongoing antibody test at Mayo Clinic. So far, they are using those tests on health care providers who are working with COVID patients.
"So the idea is that it is a blood test," says Hilden. "It's not a nose swab. This one's a blood test. And if if we could run that one by the thousands, you could imagine that you get the test, and yours is positive, meaning you had this thing in the past and just didn't know it. Then you could get back to work. It would be great if we just ran it on everybody in the hospital and we know who's who's had it, who hasn't. And then we would gradually roll it out to workers so that they could get back to their communities. I think it's the key."
According to Hilden, that test helps us get back to normal much earlier than waiting for a vaccine.