Testing is key
April 2020
Which road will we take when we open the world again?
We are living in the midst of a global crisis that is crumbling our financial security while disrupting our daily lives with a real threat of illness, or for some, death.
New information comes out daily, but there is no final solution in sight.
The bottom line is before the world fully opens up again and risks another wave of COVID-19 we need to be prepared to minimize the spread as much as possible.
Testing is the best way to identify and isolate those that are positive.
We need to demand our governments to supply Test Kits to every business, and before they open every employee should be tested.
Those found to be positive need to be sent home on paid leave for 2 weeks, provided by the government. Everyone they have been in close contact also needs to be tested.
Once they test negative and have no symptoms they can rejoin the workforce.
Governments have the money, protecting their citizens should be #1 priority. Many economies and individual lives can not survive another wave.
Port of entries should also have test stations for all who enter. In Thailand they have set up military isolation camps with a mandatory stay for 14 days before you can enter the country.
What a waste of resources. Testing would decrease the number that needed to be in isolation, bringing down the cost of providing isolation.
That all sounds great, and for the short term may work.
One major problem, they are finding is that once infected with the virus, you may be a carrier of it for the rest of your life. Patients who have been treated and appear cured are testing positive again on follow-up tests, even if they are now asymptomatic. At what point are you not contagious if you are a carrier?
But we have to start somewhere. Continuing to test and isolate seems like the most practical step, and mandatory testing of the workforce before they return to work would be a good first step.