County employees tested for virus antibodies

Jun. 4--Anthony Jones was glad the county was providing testing for COVID-19 antibodies.

"I think it's great that the county is looking out for its employees," Jones said.

Genesis Renewal, a company out of Bixby, was in Muskogee on Wednesday testing Muskogee County employees for virus antibodies.

Rebecca Williamson, who, along with Joshua Forrest founded Genesis, said her company is a mobile health care clinic that has been moving around the state doing antibody testing.

"Today we're in Muskogee testing county employees," she said. "We going to be back on June 13 to do testing on the general public, those that want to be tested."

Jeff Smith, director of Muskogee County Emergency Management, said the county reached out to Genesis about the testing.

"Antibody testing has been something that everyone's been talking about," Smith said. "Genesis was doing some testing in Wagoner County's facilities, and we asked them about the testing and how we can turn around and get it. They explained that it's covered 100% by our insurance and it's free to those without insurance.

"We asked them if they can come over and do some testing on out employees and they said, 'Yeah, as long as you don't mind us being open to the public,' and I said 'No. We're absolutely fine with that.'"

Smith also said the testing has been voluntary and was pleased with the response.

"It's been huge," he said. "We've had over 100 employees that have gone over there and got the testing done."

The testing involves drawing a blood sample from the subject.

"The regular testing is the one where they do a nasal swab and that tests for active virus," Williamson said. "The antibody testing looks for antibodies your body has built up to the virus. That means you're not currently infected with it, but at some point you have been, and they're finding out a lot of people are coming up positive and never had any symptoms.

"It's a way of seeing how pervasive the virus is. Is it as wide spread as we think it is? We don't know until we do the antibody testing and see the population that's been exposed that may not have ever known it."

Genesis is not just focusing its efforts on Muskogee.

"We've done several in the Bixby area," Williamson said. "We've got several scheduled in Pawhuska, Cleveland and Osage County."

Williamson said they draw the blood then send it off to the lab for processing. She said there is another way to do the test.

"You can do a finger stick, but the test we're doing is one vial of blood," she said. "At 14-days exposure, if you have had the illness it has a 99% sensitivity rate, which means it's 99% accurate. As little as three days post exposure, it's still in the high 90s. So this is much more accurate than the finger stick, and that's why we chose to do this."

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