KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — Local health officials are crafting plans to make testing for coronavirus more widely available as Kalamazoo County braces for an eventual uptick in cases.
The Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners met Tuesday night with a busy agenda of measures including future millages and elections to discuss, but overshadowing the event was how to respond to the growing COVID-19 outbreak.
At the meeting Public Health Officer Jim Rutherford emphasized the need for more testing to be done for the illness in order to monitor and minimize its impact.
As of Wednesday, 30 residents in Kalamazoo County have had COVID-19 testing samples submitted. 13 of the individuals tested negative for the virus, while the remaining 17 are awaiting results.
The Kalamazoo County Public Health Department currently recommends testing individuals who show coronavirus symptoms only after they have screened negative for similar illnesses like the flu or cold.
COVID-19 is a new or “novel” strain of coronavirus, but included in the family of viruses it belongs to is the common cold. Rutherford said the initial screening for other respiratory viruses is critical to determine who should get tested.
“If they have something else the likelihood of COVID-19 is very remote, so we rule that out,” the chief health official said at the meeting.
State residents concerned about carrying the virus are told to initially contact their primary care provider. If their physician has reason to believe they carried COVID-19 the provider should contact the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, which offers guidance on whether additional coronavirus testing is advised.
Kalamazoo County samples are then sent to the MDHHS Bureau of Laboratories in Lansing, where they are reported back to the county and through the official measure of statewide cases.
Reiterating that the county is the final word on whether COVID-19 testing can take place, Rutherford stresses that anyone curious about cases should know all verified cases are reported by the county.
“Local public health departments are the first source for this,” Rutherford said. “We try to ask the community to be respectful of the fact that the only entity that’s going to declare our first human case in Kalamazoo County comes from the local public health department.”
Apart from the state lab, Michigan Chief Medical Executive Joneigh Khaldun said last week that the state government has allowed four other private clinics to handle coronavirus tests, potentially decreasing the backlog in reporting.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services also announced that they have raised capacity to test 1,300 cases of suspected coronavirus with the addition of testing kits from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Rutherford hopes that increased screening could be done by increasing partnerships with local hospitals such as Bronson Methodist and Ascension Borgess in Kalamazoo.
He also is keeping open the possibility of working with private businesses like Walgreens or Quest Diagnostics to conduct screening in the weeks ahead.
In Michigan several hospitals have already begun to ramp up efforts to detect the virus. Beaumont Health, University of Michigan Medicine, Henry Ford Allegiance Hospital, and Sprectrum Health have all opened drive-thru screening operations for COVID-19.
On Sunday Kalamazoo County activated the Emergency Operations Center to coordinate the coronavirus response with state authorities. That measure could allow the county and local healthcare providers to access additional supplies of medical resources.
At the meeting Rutherford said that the public health department is seeking to utilize Strategic National Stockpiles last made available during the response to the H1N1 flu epidemic in 2009.
On Friday, March 13th Rutherford spoke with WKZO about steps being taken to protect vulnerable populations in Kalamazoo County.
“Our interagency director has been in contact with our aging population and community partners. We are being assured that meal delivery will continue and senior centers are secured with their emergency plan,” he said.
The department is also in contact with local homeless shelters to make sure they are prepared and that their health needs are met.
As of right now, the Kalamazoo County Health & Community Services Department reports there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 among county residents.
Kalamazoo’s County Health & Community Services Department’s call center will operate seven days per week from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and can be contacted at (269) 373-5267.
