Press release from the Buncombe County Department of Health and Human Services:
The COVID-19 pandemic is an ever-evolving situation and every day brings unique and different challenges. At this time, we would like to provide some additional information about a COVID-19 testing event at the Haywood Street Congregation’s Welcome Table held on December 9th. This testing event was run by CommunityLab, a division of Sanesco Health, after planning meetings with representatives from Buncombe County Health and Human Services (BCHHS), the City of Asheville, along with input from Haywood St. Congregation staff.
There has been some confusion about the test results from yesterday’s testing event. We want to let the community know that there have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 identified through testing at that event.
The goal of the testing event was to get information about the incidence of COVID-19 infection in a high-risk population. Additionally, a specific testing strategy was used to be able to provide preliminary test results quickly to the population served by Haywood Street Congregation while following proper testing protocols requiring follow-up confirmatory testing. The initial round of testing that occurred during Wednesday’s testing event used rapid antigen testing. The brand of rapid antigen test used by Sanesco CommunityLab at the event has been reported to be both highly sensitive and highly specific, which should reduce the risk of false positive and false negative results. The guidance from the CDC and NCDHHS is to follow some rapid antigen test results with confirmatory PCR testing and this was the process followed by CommunityLab.
While the initial rapid testing at the event did find a significant number of positive rapid antigen tests, these were presumptive results, requiring confirmatory PCR testing to determine if those individuals were actually infected with the virus that causes COVID-19. Thankfully, all the individuals at this event who had positive rapid antigen tests had confirmatory PCR test results that were negative and found no evidence of infection.
With regards to service provision by homeless service providers during this current surge in cases, as long as routine COVID-19 infection prevention guidance is being followed (i.e., symptom screening, the 3Ws, cleaning and disinfecting), service providers should be able to operate safely, even if cases of COVID-19 are found within the population served. In other words, there are steps that service providers can take to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 while maintaining the excellent level of service that they provide to our community’s unhoused and transient populations.
Due to initial concerns about the possibility of increasing cases of COVID-19 among clients and staff, the Warming Center hosted by Homeward Bound was scheduled to close over the holiday break. With the good news that the testing event at the Welcome Table did not return any positive test results, the warming center will reopen on Monday, Dec. 14th, 2020.
Location: Central UMC Fellowship Hall , 27 Church St.
Capacity: 50 individuals at a time, physically distanced and wearing masks
Hours of Operation: Monday- Friday from 8-12, except on days where wind chill is only in the 40’s and then it will remain open until 3:00pm
In closing, we are confirming that no positive COVID-19 cases were identified through the testing event at Haywood St. Congregation yesterday and we take this as a good sign that our community is continuing to work hard and practicing the 3Ws to the extent that they are able. However, as cases continue to rise throughout the county, state and nation, we still must assume that there are cases of COVID-19 in the unhoused and unsheltered populations. Our community partners are working hard during unprecedented times to meet the needs of our community and it takes all of us working together in lock step to ensure that we continue to leverage our networks and resources to reach populations who might not otherwise have access to COVID-19 testing and treatment.
Please contact Homeward Bound for more information on the Warming Center operations.
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