Bolinas COVID-19 Testing Effort Detects No Active Infections
Successful Implementation of State Social Distancing Orders Must be Maintained, Organizers Emphasize
A community-led project to provide comprehensive COVID-19 testing to residents, essential workers, and first responders in the town of Bolinas has determined that all of the 1,845 nasal and oral swab tests conducted in the community between April 20 and April 24 were negative for active infection with the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19.
UC San Francisco infectious disease specialists and the Marin County Department of Public Health (DPH), who partnered in the testing effort, shared finalized results with the Bolinas community on May 1, 2020.
The results of serological antibody tests — which will reveal whether anyone in the community was previously infected with the virus — are still being analyzed, with results expected in several weeks.
The PCR swab test results do not guarantee that the town is completely free of infection, but do make it unlikely that more than a handful of people, if any, are currently infected, according to UCSF infectious disease researcher Bryan Greenhouse, MD, who led UCSF’s participation in the testing project.
“Zero infections detected in the community mean that everyone’s efforts to adhere to social distancing have been working and that there is very little, if any, active infection. People should feel good about these results, remain confident in the steps they are taking to protect themselves and their community from COVID-19, and continue the safe practices recommended by public health officials,” said Greenhouse, an associate professor in the UCSF Division of HIV, Infectious Disease and Global Medicine, based at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, and a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub investigator.