Rhode Island is trying to double the number of daily tests taken for COVID-19, in part by encouraging more employers to adopt surveillance testing.
Manufacturing companies have already started moving the tests on-site, and schools are expected to follow. Gov. Gina M. Raimondo said the strategy is one of the best ways to curtail the spread of the virus. She said the state has a new goal of 25,000 tests a day.
“We want to make it incredibly easy for you to get tested,” she said. “At work, get a test.”
Using federal funds, the state last month started distributing the rapid BinaxNOW tests to employers. Outside the entrance of the workplace, workers use the kits to take the tests themselves. Results are available in as little as 15 minutes.
Already, such testing is catching infections in workers before they enter a job site, said David M. Chenevert, executive director of the Rhode Island Manufacturers Association.
He has encouraged other business groups to consider on-site tests.
The testing has a modest cost, about $180 per company to participate. Depending on the size of the company, some manufacturers are testing their workforce weekly or monthly, Chenevert said.
The test can be required as part of company policy, he said. And he expects more companies to do so in the months ahead. “It’s becoming something we should be doing everywhere,” he said.
The practice, however, does raise privacy issues. How far can an employer go to require an employee to take part? And if a workforce is unionized, should the bargaining units be signing off on the practice?
Andrew Prescott, managing partner for the Providence office of the national law firm Nixon Peabody LLP, said the legal interpretation is nuanced. Since the late 1980s, Rhode Island has had a statute that prevents employers from requiring tests that draw blood, saliva or other bodily fluids from existing employees.
Whether that could be applied to COVID-19 tests is a question that hasn’t been tested in court.
That statute, he noted, is substantially more restrictive than in many states.
“I think one could argue either way whether that statute applies to the [COVID-19] test we’re discussing,” said Prescott.
He would recommend that employers “strongly encourage” the employees to take the spot tests, but not require it as a condition of employment.
Employers conducting routine testing say it’s kept employees safe.
A location where COVID-19 tests are offered to employers is in downtown Providence by CIC Health, a subsidiary of Cambridge Innovation Center in Massachusetts.
CIC Health provides polymerase chain reaction tests – commonly known as PCR tests – for COVID-19, according to Rebecca Webber, CIC Providence LLC general manager. PCR test results are being returned in about 24 hours.
CIC Health offers the testing to company clients, and also offers pooled testing, which lowers the cost of testing by having samples analyzed in batches.
One company participating is Nabsys 2.0 LLC, a biotechnology company. Its executive, Barrett Bready, is an I-195 Redevelopment District Commission member and told other commission members at a Jan. 14 meeting that Nabsys was participating in daily pooled testing.
“We actually found a positive on the first day,” he said.
Mary MacDonald is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Macdonald@PBN.com.
