COVID-19 testing sites struggle to keep up amid “explosive situation” in Washington
Even before the state’s Friday declaration that the pandemic is creating an “explosive situation,” Cheryl Hill of Tacoma discovered that getting a COVID-19 test isn’t easy.
Her son sought testing at the Tacoma Walgreens on Pearl Street last week.
“I couldn’t book anything online,” she told The News Tribune. “It showed seven days out, and each day was booked.”
Her son eventually just showed up and wound up waiting about three hours in the parking lot, with 15 to 20 people ahead of him. Those people also had no appointments and were in line behind those who did.
By July 17, the store’s testing was booked for the next week. “Just showing up” is no longer possible due to limited tests on hand, according to a representative answering calls at the store.
Media representatives for the drugstore chain did not respond to requests for comment.
The story is becoming a familiar one in the Tacoma area. Although tests might be available, the number of people needing them is quickly escalating. On at least one day, contact tracers reached out to more than 700 people in the area who have potentially been exposed.
Not all of them will need a test, but those who do could face a lengthy wait for an appointment, results, or both, adding yet another challenge to timely tracing and containment of the virus.
Late Friday, the state Department of Health described an “explosive situation” in its situation report.
“Transmission continues to increase or accelerate across most of Washington state and will continue to do so unless concrete steps are taken to stop the spread,” the report says.
At Wednesday’s Board of Health meeting, members noted that they were hearing from individuals either not able to get tested or facing delays as long as eight days in getting results.
Health officials have reviewed proposals to increase testing at primary care clinics and to grow lab capacity in the county, Nigel Turner, director of the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department’s Communicable Disease Division, told the board.
The number of tests in the county has increased to an average of 886 a day, compared with just 311 a day in early May.
The testing backlog is real and growing, state health officials say.
As Pierce County has seen COVID-19 cases surge, so has the nation, creating a ripple effect.
“In Washington, and many other states across the country, with the rapid surge of disease activity, particularly in other states with an even more rapid increase of disease activity ... we’re starting to see emerging significant challenges requiring adequate lab supplies,” said Reed Schuler, senior policy adviser for Gov. Jay Inslee’s office, in a briefing with reporters Wednesday.
“We’ve seen a major slowdown nationally for the large out-of-state commercial labs that supply approximately 20 percent of the positive test results for the state,” he said.
The results can take six days, he said, which has “very real implications for our ongoing public health efforts.”
State labs also feel the pressure of the surge, with ”an absence of a strong national program that we need to support the reagents and other supplies that we need to run our labs,” Schuler added.
“If left unaddressed,” he said, “shortages could force us to restrict, and even ration, testing down the line at precisely the moment when we need to expand our testing operations.”
This week, Rite Aid started offering free testing at locations including Tacoma and Lakewood.
The county also offers free mobile testing; 825 people showed up at a recent testing site at a fairgrounds parking lot in Puyallup.
A full list of Pierce County testing locations can be found at www.tpchd.org/covidtest.
On Friday, the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, in its update for providers, noted, “Some large commercial labs are experiencing significant delays returning COVID-19 test results.”
“In most cases, in-state labs can process specimens and return results faster than out-of-state labs. We strongly encourage you to use in-state labs for COVID-19 testing to shorten the turnaround time for test results.”
Locally, the struggle continues.
While her son got his results quickly, Hill told The News Tribune that a friend took a COVID test Monday at a local MultiCare clinic and was still waiting for the results as of Friday.
“We’re working hard within our urgent cares to maintain an approximate two-day turnaround for COVID-19 tests,” MultiCare Health System spokeswoman Marce Edwards told The News Tribune.
“With the recent surge in cases – and subsequent testing – we’re concerned about our labs and the labs we work with getting backed up. We continue to manage this on a daily basis,” Edwards added.
The state, in its situation report Friday, warned of a rough road ahead.
“Washington State is in the early stages of an exponential statewide outbreak that has zero chance of being reversed without changes to our collective behavior and policies to support that change.”
This story was originally published July 19, 2020 at 3:30 AM.
