On March 30th, Summit County initiated mobile COVID-19 testing, expanding test collection and processing through a contract with Stadium Medical. The mobile testing program has allowed our community’s first responders and police, as well as community members who meet the specific criteria, to be tested in the comfort of their homes, thereby minimizing the potential exposure risk to others. Centura-St. Anthony Summit Medical Center was instrumental in launching the partnership with Stadium Medical and Summit County Public Health to offer at-home COVID-19 testing for first responders and certain community members.
St. Anthony Summit Medical Center’s ongoing support of this mobile at-home testing program includes:
- providing daily PPE (protective personal equipment) and PAPRs to Stadium Medical EMS personnel;
- supplying some of the COVID-19 testing kits;
- performing daily maintenance of Stadium Medical’s PPE;
- providing a Summit County base of operations for Stadium Medical EMS personnel; and
- providing expert training on safe PPE use and COVID-19 test administration.
Prior to March 30th, the criteria for testing eligibility included first responders and health care workers who were sick with symptoms consistent with COVID-19, as well as individuals requiring hospitalization. With the new expanded testing capacity, Summit County is able to broaden the criteria, as long as testing kits are available.
Although testing resources remain limited, all Summit County residents who are experiencing any symptoms consistent with COVID-19 – fever of 100.4 or higher, dry cough, muscle aches, headache, shortness of breath – are strongly encouraged to log them in the Colorado Symptom Tracker Dashboard, even if those symptoms are mild. So far, over 1,500 Summit County residents have participated in the online tracker.