‘Significant barriers’ remain for COVID-19 testing, Pierce County health director says
There have been struggles at nearly every stage of the testing process for the coronavirus, or COVID-19.
The director of the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department told the board of directors in an emergency meeting there is still a bottleneck in testing.
“There are significant barriers with testing,” Dr. Anthony Chen said in a conference call with the board members Monday.
Of Washington state’s 12,486 tested individuals, 703 were from Pierce County as of Monday.
Clinical staff have been hesitant to collect body fluids to send to the lab because there is a shortage of proper protective equipment, like gowns and masks, Chen said.
Medical workers are also running low on cotton swabs needed to collect saliva and phlegm to conduct tests.
“We thought this might get better, but we’ve hit a plateau,” Chen told the board.
The availability of testing kits has been a concern, he added.
Labs have had shortages of pipettes, which are used to measure or transport fluids.
The Washington Department of Health’s warehouse for medical supplies is almost depleted, Chen said. A request from the federal government’s stockpile has been approved, but only for a fraction of what was requested.
“There is not much relief on the horizon,” he told the board.
Supplies have to be conserved with each use, Chen said.
In the meantime, the health director said, drive-thru testing can partially preserve some medical supplies because the same staff, donned in the same gear, are performing the tests.
Chen told The News Tribune that he is hopeful the county will mitigate the outbreak. As of Monday, there were 38 reported cases and no fatalities in Pierce County.
He recalled that health care workers were able to contain a hepatitis C outbreak before a test was created. They were able to test for hepatitis A or B, and, if a patient’s results were negative for both and they were exhibiting certain symptoms, they were a presumed positive for hepatitis C.
Chen believes that a similar strategy would be effective for coronavirus if health care workers were able to rule out pneumonia and influenza.
