May. 14, 2020
HARRISBURG - Reps. Steve Mentzer (R-Lancaster) and Keith Greiner (R-Lancaster) have introduced
House Bill 2524, which would establish a pilot program that would allow employers to test their employees for COVID-19 antibodies when they return to work.
“If there is a possibility of identifying trained medical and personal care staff people who may be immune to, or incapable of spreading, COVID-19, it could be a great benefit to our nursing homes and medical facilities,” Mentzer said. “We want to try these tests here so we can find out what someone’s level of resistance may be. This could help in developing a vaccine and minimizing the spread.”
“Employers will want to confirm that their workplace is safe for everyone when we reopen,” said Greiner. “Giving our businesses the ability to do testing is an important step to reopening our economy, and the data collected would be very helpful for public health officials to assess the spread of the virus. Any way we can help reduce uncertainty in the business community and our health care system is crucial.”
The pilot program would possibly be funded by the federal CARES Act or other grant programs that are running antibody testing. In addition, employers can look into working out an agreement with any laboratories who would want to run the tests.
There are numerous antibody tests that have been created in the United States, but so far only four have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Both New York and Los Angeles are testing these antibody tests and they are finding that significantly more people carry the antibodies than they had projected. Officials have suggested that antibody testing is crucial for analyzing the impact of COVID-19 due to the large amount of asymptomatic patients.
Representative Keith Greiner
43rd District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Alison Haas
717.772.9843
ahaas@pahousegop.com
RepKeithGreiner.com
Facebook.com/RepGreiner
Representative Steven Mentzer
97th District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Charles Lardner
clardner@pahousegop.com
RepMentzer.com
Facebook.com/RepMentzer