LYNN — As the city prepares to reopen, Lynn Community Health Center is launching a campaign to encourage more residents to get tested for COVID-19.
The purpose of the campaign is to provide Lynn Community Health Center and other health officials in the city with a better sense of how widespread the virus is in the community.
Dr. Geoff Pechinsky, LCHC chief medical officer, said the city’s seven-day positive rate, which at 29.62 percent is about three times higher than the state average, could indicate that not enough people are getting tested.
For example, Pechinsky said the high rate, which is 22 percent at LCHC, could indicate that only the sickest people are getting tested for the coronavirus, which could be skewing results and preventing health officials from getting a handle on community spread.
“We know the reason (for the higher rate) is we’re just not testing enough people,” said Pechinsky. “We’re offering testing here for people who are not symptomatic but have been in contact with people who have had COVID.”
The LCHC campaign, which kicked off this week, is focused on reaching out to Lynn businesses that rely on “customer-facing work,” such as barbershops, salons and food preparation, with an offer to test their employees before they return from furlough.
Anyone who lives and works in Lynn and meets the latest state Department of Public Health guidelines for testing can make an appointment to be tested for free at the Lynn Community Health Center’s outdoor walk-through testing site, which is located in the Element Care parking lot on Buffum Street.
For instance, people are eligible for a test if they exhibit any symptoms of COVID-19, have been exposed to anyone who has tested positive for the virus and if their employer requires them to be tested in order to work, according to LCHC.
However, people who have recovered from the virus are discouraged from getting tested, as they can continue to test positive for a long time — many weeks in some cases — after they become non-contagious, Pechinsky said.
“As the governor’s plan is to start to reopen, we as a community need to ensure we’re not on the forefront of it,” said Pechinsky. “Lynn is a hot spot. We know that COVID-19 has affected populations of color and also there’s an economic disparity of who’s been affected so we know there’s a higher rate here than many other communities.
“It’s really hard to know these prevalences if we can’t test a higher percentage of our patients or population. Are we really 22 percent or as we test more people, is that actually a little less or a little more?”
Many people with COVID-19 are asymptomatic and unaware of their infection, added LCHC CEO Dr. Kiame Mahaniah in a statement.
“Testing seemingly healthy people will identify these asymptomatic individuals who can then isolate to help slow the spread of the virus,” said Mahaniah.
Lynn Community Health Center has three testing sites and can test up to 500 people a day. Patients can get tested in the health center, while all Lynn residents and employees can get tested at the outdoor clinic on Buffum Street. The outdoor clinic is by appointment, but walk-ins are also accepted.
As of last week, residents and city workers can get tested once or twice a week at an outdoor pop-up clinic at Market Square, which is dependent on testing volume, Pechinsky said.
The health center plans to add a mobile testing clinic on June 20, which will move to different neighborhoods depending on where the highest need is at any given time, according to Pechinsky.
“We want to find areas in Lynn that may benefit from having testing readily available so we can use some of the data of where that might be and just offer testing intermittently,” said Pechinsky.
Although Pechinsky said data that has shown COVID-19 cases trending downward in the past several weeks has been encouraging, he cautioned that as restrictions start to be relaxed, there could another spike with numbers going up again.
“It has slowed down but i think the whole question of can we reopen really hinges on this data,” said Pechinsky. “If the positivity rate is still that high with people social distancing and businesses not being open fully and then we start to relax the social distancing, people don’t wear masks as much as they once did, (and) restaurants start to open, the numbers will start to go up again.”
With measures being lifted and numbers going down, Pechinsky said people may start to feel like they are safe, but it’s important to stay vigilant.
“Even though we’re three months into the pandemic, (if) someone is exposed, they should be tested,” said Pechinsky.
