How Sonoma County is testing first responders for coronavirus

When Sonoma County resident Megan Berger learned Marylou Armer, the Santa Rosa Police Department detective who died late last month from complications of COVID-19, had twice been denied testing by Solano County doctors, her emotions turned to anger.

“I just felt like the testing was misallocated and people who are physically touching people and who are going into homes, that the testing should have been prioritized for them,” said Berger, a former dispatcher and EMT who learned about Armer’s difficulties getting tested from a weekend Press Democrat article.

Berger channeled that frustration on Sunday, turning to the petition website Change.org to start a public plea for priority COVID-19 testing of first responders, law enforcement, social workers and health care staff.

Her idea was to create a legal provision that would allow those types of employees to be tested on a first-priority basis at the first sign of symptoms during a pandemic or epidemic, effectively side-stepping health care policies that may vary from one company to the next, Berger said.

Her petition had garnered signatures from more than 9,400 people by Thursday evening and was addressed to several local and state politicians, among them state Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, and Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“If (Armer) would have known two weeks earlier, it may have progressed the same way but at least her family could have been better prepared to handle it,” Berger said of the significance of the testing.

Law enforcement employees and other first responders who show symptoms of the coronavirus and who are treated in Sonoma County are already given priority testing, Sonoma County Public Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase said.

Guidelines posted on the Sonoma County emergency and preparedness website ask clinicians to give precedence for testing to people with symptoms of COVID-19 who also fit other criteria, including those who are inmates or work at a jail or prison and first responders, including fire and law enforcement workers.

“If someone shows up who is a first responder and has symptoms, they get tested right away, kind of move to the front of the line,” Mase said.

But the California Department of Public Health’s guidelines for priority testing, posted online in March, do not list law enforcement or firefighters. Symptomatic health care workers, inmates and staff at correctional facilities and employees of long-term health care homes are included. In a letter dated March 20, the Peace Officers Research Association of California, a professional association that advocates for law enforcement, asked Newsom to expedite testing for all first responders if they show any symptoms or come in contact with an infected person.

Testing of asymptomatic officers is not happening in Sonoma County, unless they are otherwise identified through contract tracing as someone who may have come in close contact with another person who tested positive for the virus, county officials said.

That was the case several weeks ago, when public health officials tested 81 sworn officers in one weekend after Sonoma County saw a surge in positive tests within the Santa Rosa Police Department, Mase said. Testing of that group netted only two positive results, Mase added.

Other than Armer, all employees at the Santa Rosa Police Department who tested positive for the virus, nine in total, have recovered.

At the Santa Rosa Fire Department, which last week announced that a first responder at the agency tested positive for the virus, tests for all 11 other employees who were tested came back negative. One employee remained quarantined as of Thursday morning, and 17 had been allowed to return to work, Santa Rosa spokeswoman Adriane Mertens said.

American Medical Response, a private medical transportation company that operates ambulances in Sonoma County, said two of its employees sought testing for COVID-19 after experiencing symptoms typically seen in patients who contract the respiratory disease, though neither employee tested positive, company spokesman Jason Sorrick said. The agency has had no issues with getting employees tested, Sorrick added.

Sonoma County’s largest law enforcement agency, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, has had one positive test among its ranks: former Lt. Carlos Basturto, who now works part time as a bailiff at the Sonoma County Superior Court. He was on vacation when he noticed the first signs of the virus and had not returned to work before flying home and seeking medical treatment.

One other staff member in the department’s law enforcement division has been tested for the virus, which came back negative, data provided by the agency showed. Tests for 13 other employees among the Sheriff’s Office detention staff, which runs the county’s two jails, also came back negative.

You can reach Staff Writer Nashelly Chavez at 707-521-5203 or nashelly.chavez@pressdemocrat.com.