A holistic approach to keeping businesses covid-free

By combining environmental surveillance and clinical testing, businesses can avoid lockdowns while keeping employees and customers safe

By WP BrandStudio

Nearly nine months after it began, the covid-19 pandemic continues to spread, keeping doors closed across the country. In this time, we’ve abandoned our offices, cancelled business travel and avoided contact with vulnerable colleagues and family. These lockdowns have proven to be immensely costly. While larger organizations continue to lose money paying rent for spaces they aren’t using, nearly 100,000 small businesses have already permanently closed and 22 million jobs have been lost across the country.

But business leaders looking to survive during the current and future waves of infection don’t have to decide between reopening and keeping their employees safe. With a comprehensive testing approach—starting with broader environmental surveillance testing and funneling down to clinical testing—businesses will have the power to reopen and stay open.

“We need to stop thinking about testing as an individual activity only,” said Pat Whalen, CEO of LuminUltra, a biological diagnostic testing company based in Canada with extensive operations in the U.S. and Europe.  “Each type of testing can be used to inform another. We can gain insight into the health of thousands with a single wastewater test and dozens with a surface test. Ultimately, clinical testing provides the greatest specificity, but that testing is most efficient when deployed strategically based on insights from wastewater and surface testing.”

For example, an office break room can be tested at the end of the work day. Within a few hours, management can know if the virus is detected, indicating someone with the virus used that space. Crucial actions can then be taken, including disinfecting the area before employees return in the morning and sending potential at-risk employees for clinical testing. This quick action can prevent a potential outbreak before it has time to spread.

“Businesses don’t have to wait for things to get completely out of hand,” said Dr. Jordan Schmidt, director of product applications at LuminUltra. “They can take action on a daily basis to make sure that they, their employees and their community are protected.”

Using environmental data to inform clinical action

Simply put, environmental testing detects the virus early and clinical testing puts a stop to it. “It’s all about feeding one to the other,” Schmidt said. “With environmental testing, we can direct clinical testing towards who needs it the most. All these testing strategies work together. They inform decision-making in both a private enterprise and in public health.”

Clinical tests, or testing individuals directly, will continue to play a crucial part on the road to recovery. They help to make informed decisions about where we go, who we see and what remains open. But employees may not know to get a test if they are asymptomatic and even in cases where symptoms become apparent, it can take up to seven days from infection to the first signs of covid-19 to appear. The exponential spread of the virus can lead to major restrictions being reimplemented, shuttering businesses and taking a toll on economies worldwide.

By starting with environmental surveillance—regular testing of surfaces, air and wastewater in the workplace—businesses can create a comprehensive testing approach that can provide crucial early warning several days in advance, strategically target clinical testing and ultimately get ahead of outbreaks before they happen.

This approach not only allows businesses to avoid a lockdown—it’s also far more cost effective to test a group of people via environmental surveillance than it is to purchase multiple individual clinical tests, which can cost several hundred dollars per person.

Biotechnology companies that have expertise in both clinical and environmental diagnostic solutions can help businesses and governments build out testing protocols. LuminUltra’s GeneCount device—which leverages the same gold standard qPCR technology as clinical testing—is an affordable way for businesses to implement environmental surveillance on their own. This point-of-need testing solution is highly accurate, user-friendly and can yield results from dozens of samples in under two hours.

If covid-19 is detected, business leaders can quickly move to clinical testing. Clinical testing can then help to narrow in on “patient zero” in an outbreak and inform smarter decision-making about next steps for that individual, as well as protect other employees and customers.

Getting smart about how to test

Combining environmental surveillance with clinical testing means that businesses are attacking the problem from every angle. But in order for it to work, they need to commit to testing consistently, strategically and intelligently.

Any viable game plan to reopen begins with frequency. “The most important thing is to test, test, test,” said Schmidt. “You need to understand who is going to come into your doors. Where are people going to be? Test there.”

High-touch surfaces like doorknobs and railings are what Schmidt refers to as “choke points” in a building. These locations can be determined by analyzing a floor plan. Perhaps the only way in or out of a particular dormitory, high-rise or nursing home is one particular door. “Instead of focusing on the whole building, focus on that door. In one test, we can get a good indication of the health of the entire building.”

Testing wastewater is another essential test sample some businesses can employ to monitor the overall health of their facility. “Environmental testing on wastewater has been able to predict new outbreaks of covid-19 in every place from educational institutions to entire cities days in advance,” said Whalen. This advance warning is particularly valuable to high-risk businesses like nursing homes and long-term care facilities.

Staying aware of population health is key, but if the building has proven to be healthy, the next challenge is to keep it that way. That means understanding the difference between cleaning—taking out the garbage or vacuuming—and disinfecting. “Disinfecting is not the same as cleaning. Businesses need to take additional steps to ensure a more thorough disinfection than they may have pre-covid,” said Schmidt.

To help build confidence for both staff and patrons, businesses can take additional steps to ensure proper disinfection of spaces. This could include verifying that disinfection has occurred properly by testing with the GeneCount device to evaluate whether any presence of the virus remains.

Coordination for the greater good

“We have a responsibility to be doing our part in managing this pandemic,” said Kinn Elliott, director of global government affairs at LuminUltra. “This is one of those things that is bigger than an individual and bigger than a business. This is about society as a whole, and until we take some level of responsibility in doing our part, we’re going to remain in this situation. While there is encouraging news around a potential vaccine, we will have to remain diligent with protocols including widespread testing for many more months.”

The idea of telling the government about viral presence might unnerve some business owners shell-shocked by lockdowns, but Elliott points out that no one wants to be a superspreader. Businesses that test strategically can help the community at large by reporting their findings to local authorities, allowing them to track clusters of infection and curb outbreaks before they happen. Transparency and partnership, ultimately, can lead to normalcy again.

Government programs such as the CARES Act have been put in place to help support businesses, including with the implementation of comprehensive testing efforts. And various government entities have introduced programs to help coordinate data points. The CDC introduced a National Wastewater Surveillance System earlier this year to help coordinate data points coming in from communities and workplaces.

By sharing virus data with their local health department, business leaders play a part in protecting their community. Not only does this benefit the business—by keeping employees, clients and customers healthy and the company protected from another costly shutdown—it will help our country see the other side of this pandemic much sooner.

“Monitoring the presence of the virus helps us make the right decisions. And it’s only through communication and partnership that we’re going to get there,” said Elliott. “This is going to take the intersection of government and business. It’s critically important that individual businesses do their part to maintain appropriate infection control protocols and see those all the way through with information sharing.”