Post Falls council urges more COVID-19 testing

The Post Falls City Council voted Tuesday to send a letter to Gov. Brad Little, urging the governor to procure both additional COVID-19 tests and serology tests prior to lifting the state’s stay-at-home order.

Serology tests can determine if a person has had an immune response to SARS-CoV-2 and whether they had a symptomatic or asymptomatic response to the COVID-19 infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Antibody testing, according to a statement released on April 7 by the Food and Drug Administration, is not an effective means to diagnose COVID-19.

The council voted to send the letter, with council member Alan Wolfe dissenting.

The letter read “the risk is far from over. The lack of testing has the propensity to undo the strides that Idaho has so far made.”

“Until we test a large swath of the population we don’t know how widespread this is,” council member Joe Malloy said.

The council generally agreed that while widespread testing is necessary to properly prepare the city to reopen, they felt it important to acknowledge that many residents are economically hurting because of the stay-at-home order.

Council member Linda Wilhelm observed that the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare seems at odds with the CDC’s guidance that the safest way to open up the economy is to do tests and antibody tests.

“Are we saying that if there is not a testing strategy in place that we don’t want the economy to open?” Wolfe said.

City Administrator Shelly Enderud said the intention of the letter is to help the governor work with national testing supply chains, to show the city’s support of his efforts to bring more testing to Idaho.

Mayor Ron Jacobson eagerly anticipates the governor’s update on Thursday. He also took a moment to thank his staff for the work they have done over the past month to keep the city in operation.

“I appreciate your efforts,” Jacobson said.

The city also amended the professional services agreement with JUB Engineers for the Tertiary Treatment Facility Upgrades after a presentation by Andrew Arbini, the city’s utilities project manager.

In 2018 the council approved a design and engineering agreement with JUB Engineering, but the construction management portion of the project to upgrade to the existing wastewater reclamation facility was not included.

Arbini anticipates a loan with funding coming from the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality to go toward the estimated $40 million project cost, but sought $3,675,060 from the council to propel the project forward.