Health care workers at Glen Cove Hospital being tested for Covid-19 antibody

Northwell Health began testing its front line health care workers system-wide on April 13 to discover if their blood contains antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. Over 17,000 health care workers were tested. On May 1, Glen Cove Hospital began testing its health care workers too.

The staff in the intensive care unit were the first to undergo the testing at GCH, said Bradley Sherman, medical director and chair of the Dept. of Medicine at the hospital. The medical staff elsewhere will be tested next, followed by doctors who work in the community that have privileges at the hospital.

“I’m not sure how many have been found to be positive but my suspicion is that most [GCH health care workers] do not have the antibody,” Sherman said. “One ICU doctor that I know tested negative, which surprised me because he has worked so closely with patients that have Covid.”

What this means is that the personal protective equipment worn at the hospital is effective, said Dr. James Kraus. He is the chair of pathology, lab director and part of the Covid Convalescent Plasma Clinical Trial team for GCH. “We’ve found with the antibody preliminary date that there is very low positivity for the antibody even among those working with the most ill patients,” Kraus said.  

The test to determine if someone has the coronavirus antibody is simple, requiring that their blood be drawn by a physician. The employees at GCH are receiving the results from their blood test by email in one to two days or within a week’s time. A positive result would mean that they were exposed to Covid-19. Those that have recovered from the virus can also have the antibody.

“A large number of people may have had the virus and didn’t realize they had it,” Sherman said. “We aren’t sure if they can be reinfected again. And if the virus mutates, people with the antibodies may be able to get it again.”

The flu, which mutates, changes every year, he added. No one is sure if Covid-19, which is more contagious, will also mutate.

There is a trial at the Mayo Clinic now where plasma is being given to patients that are ill with the coronavirus, Sherman said. The plasma is from those with the antibody that have  recovered from the virus. “They are finding that in certain cases the plasma with the antibody is beneficial,” he said. “These patients are very sick on ventilators or very sick with pneumonia.”

Kraus said that all of the results are being documented by Northwell.

“If you have the antibody at this point we don’t know what that means,” he said. “It should take one to two months to see if someone who had Covid will become reinfected. If no one gets it again we are thinking that the antibody is a protection but we don’t know for how long. We are hoping that the immunity will last one season.”

Kraus said that people that have recovered from Covid-19 are already donating plasma, even without being tested for the antibody. In fact, they are being encouraged to do so.

Four patients with the coronavirus, three of which were on a ventilator, received a transfusion of blood with the antibody at Glen Cove Hospital, Kraus said. He’s hopeful, he said, that the blood will help, but more data is needed. He predicts he may have that data in five to six weeks. 

When asked if there were plans for all of the hospital staff to be tested to see if they have the virus, he said no. “We don’t have enough tests to test everyone,” Kraus said. “There has always been supply chain issues. First we didn’t have enough swabs now it’s that we don’t have enough chemicals. Doing the antibody test is more beneficial.”