ST. LOUIS — Without enough testing, public health experts are operating in the dark. They don't know who has COVID-19 — especially those without symptoms — and who doesn’t.
But the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force is developing a testing plan to get a better idea of just how prevalent coronavirus is here.
"We have to make sure that we do this right. We don't get a second chance of doing this right,” Dr. Alexander Garza said at his media briefing Tuesday.
Garza, the head of task force, said even while most us are staying at home, coronavirus is still out there, and it will spread if more people start going back to their normal lives. Limiting the spread must be part of the plan to reopen the economy, he said.
"My fear is if we go too fast it will spread too quickly, and it will overwhelm the healthcare system,” he said.
Garza blamed the lack of testing – and with it, not knowing who’s spreading the virus – as part of the reason for the shutdowns we’re experiencing.
"Because of that we've had to resort to the much more strict methods of shelter-in-place and all of that,” he said.
But there's progress on the testing front.
Garza said antibody testing, which shows if you've been exposed, will likely be available in the next couple of weeks. And the task force is working with academic partners to develop a testing strategy.
There won’t be enough tests for everyone, but the task force is figuring how to sample the population to see how prevalent coronavirus is here.
"We'll have to figure out a number that says we think this is what the community looks like as far as exposure to the virus,” he said.
That plan should be ready within a week, Garza said.
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