STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A partnership between Borough Hall, Richmond University Medical Center (RUMC), Staten Island nursing homes and a Long Island testing manufacturer — will allow all residents and staff members in the Island’s 10 skilled nursing facilities to receive coronavirus (COVID-19) testing, the Advance/SILive.com has learned.
The partnership, which was forged by Dr. Ginny Mantello, the borough’s health and wellness director, and will also test RUMC staffers, is slated to begin as early as next week, said Mantello and Borough President James Oddo.
Mantello said the plan began after she spoke to Chembio, the testing manufacturer, about the opportunity to help Staten Island nursing homes, which, up until now, have been unable to conduct widespread testing among the borough’s most vulnerable population.
“They immediately said ‘yes we want to help you’,” Mantello said, adding that the testing manufacturer has not yet begun a partnership of this magnitude in New York City.
The tests, according to Mantello, will be able to both tell individuals if they “have the infection right now” and if they have “started to develop those long-term antibodies to fight it off," which would paint a “comprehensive picture” of the spread of the virus in nursing homes.
Understanding who currently and who previously had the virus, Mantello believes, will enable nursing homes to better isolate patients and also understand who has at least some portion of potential immunity.
However, the finger prick tests intended to be used in the partnership created by Chembio have only been approved for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be processed in laboratories capable of running “moderate and high complexity tests," which are not available in nursing homes.
Mantello approached RUMC and asked if the hospital would be willing to run and process the tests — at its own cost and by its own lab technicians — to help the borough’s nursing homes.
“RUMC very graciously not only accepted to help the nursing homes with this testing, but also said this is an opportunity for us to test our own staff to see how many of them have been exposed and potentially have antibodies and have some level of protection against this enemy,” Mantello said.
RUMC will purchase its own tests, along with readers necessary for processing the collected samples, and could potentially run “at least 300 tests a day," with results coming back within 10-15 minutes. Approximately 7,500 total tests will be purchased to start the testing within the hospital and the Island’s 10 skilled nursing facilities.
“At Richmond University Medical Center, we have been searching for the ability to perform antibody testing for our employees in order to assess their exposure to COVID-19 at different levels of clinical involvement," said Dr. Philip Otterbeck, chairman of the Department of Medicine, and Dr. Marianne LaBarbera, president of the medical staff, in a joint statement.
“The partnership with Chembio lab will enable us to test our brave hospital employees who have been on the front lines caring for our families, friends and neighbors in the hospital and medical practices,” the statement said. “Additionally, we are very pleased to perform coronavirus antibody testing at our laboratory for the benefit of the nursing homes on Staten Island.”
"We thank Borough President James Oddo and Dr. Ginny Mantello for their assistance in helping us secure access to this newly developed testing. Indeed, since the pandemic began, nursing homes have had little access to testing, and this antibody test will prove crucial to facility providers in identifying which residents and staff have been exposed to COVID-19.”
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As the nursing home facilities aim to find ways to fund the tests individually, Oddo said the borough has begun looking to various other sources for funding. RUMC agreed to order extra tests for nursing homes under their purchase order, Mantello said.
“We are going to work together as one community, and we are going to try to help and fill the gaps wherever needed,” Mantello said. “Everybody is trying to help the best they can.”
To help ensure the validity of the tests, Mantello said RUMC will run an initial set of tests to ensure comprehensive results. However, she also said that no single test will determine medical action alone, and that individual patients will also be considered to make an appropriate determination.
“Nobody ever looks at a lab result … and does not look at the patient,” she said. “If we did that, we would get burned every time.”
Oddo said the partnership and testing program is “a byproduct of the sheer will and passion that Dr. Ginny brings every day." While cautioning that the response to the virus is still in its early stages, he lauded the importance of the partnership.
“We’re in the second inning of a nine-inning game, but this is a big play in the second inning,” he said.
Questions still remain as to how effective antibodies will be against reinfection of the coronavirus.
“Now, whether or not those soldiers are strong enough to actually completely stop another infection or at least give you a lesser version of the infection, we don’t know yet because we are still still trying to figure this out,” Mantello said.
Mantello said that based on already-studied viruses, individuals who develop antibodies have a possibility of being immune for a period of time, or are less likely to develop a more severe symptoms.
“Most viruses act in a way that the body will build some antibodies to that initial response, and that will help, at least for that season, it will help you fighting off a subsequent attack,” she said.
Through Tuesday of this week, the coronavirus has tore through New York nursing homes, with more than 3,500 deaths within the state — 125 of which were on Staten Island.
