Fayetteville health board evaluates testing options for city employees

FAYETTEVILLE -- The city is looking at a less invasive form of pooled covid testing for employees that could cost less than individual nasal swabs, the city's Board of Health heard Wednesday.

Marti Sharkey, the city's public health officer, told the board she had been speaking with Natural State Laboratories in Little Rock about providing the city weekly tests for employees. The City Council on Sept. 7 asked Mayor Lioneld Jordan to explore a policy requiring city employees to get a weekly test for covid-19, or provide proof of vaccination to opt out.

Sharkey said a pooled option would likely serve as the most feasible and cost-efficient means of testing. The test would take six saliva samples at a time to be sent to a laboratory in Little Rock. Negative results for all six would likely be available the next morning and a pooled sample with a positive result in the mix could take a little longer, she said.

A pooled sample containing a positive result would require those six employees to get tested individually to find the positive case, Sharkey said.

"It's less invasive with nothing going in the nose. Some people really hate that," she said. "With the cost efficiency -- and it's PCR -- I think of the options it looks really promising."

The cost should fall far under Jordan's initial estimate of $164,000 monthly, Sharkey said. She said she hopes to present the administration a cost estimate in the coming days.

The city was talking about the policy before President Joe Biden announced the same requirement for private businesses nationwide with at least 100 employees last week.

"We did that on Tuesday, and then the president made his announcement on Thursday," Jordan said. "I will have to admit it kind of threw me into a little bit of a tailspin to figure out exactly how it applied to us or if it did apply to us."

Jordan said even though it appeared local governments in Arkansas will not be subject to Biden's mandate, the city was already making headway with its own policy. By the time rules come out from the federal government the city likely will have its policy in place, he said.

City administrators are working on a contract with a vendor for contact tracing and are setting up a leave bank employees could draw from if they get a positive covid test, Jordan said. The City Council's resolution asked the city to use its allocation of American Rescue Plan money or other federal aid to cover the cost of testing.

The city estimates about 64% of its 770 or so employees are fully vaccinated.

Fire Chief Brad Hardin and board members had previously expressed concerns with the logistics of trying to get employees spread all over the city working at different hours tested weekly. Pulling off the task likely will be difficult no matter the testing method, Hardin said.

"It's something we'll work through," he said.