Why are more than a thousand unused COVID-19 test kits sitting in storage in Tacoma?
More than 1,000 COVID-19 test kits went unused after a drive-thru testing event at the Tacoma Dome last week.
Now, they’re sitting in storage, and some local officials aren’t happy about it.
“The fact that over 1,000 test kits have been sitting in storage for nearly a week is irresponsible and reprehensible,” Tacoma City Council member Conor McCarthy said in a statement to The News Tribune. “Have we already tested all those in our community who demonstrate symptoms and work in health care, public safety, grocery stores, are at high risk, etc.?”
The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department has asked state and federal partners if the tests can be used for local testing or if they are to be deployed elsewhere, said Mike Halliday, spokesperson for Pierce County Emergency Management.
“The kits were supplied to Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department by state and federal partners with specific instructions for their use with the mass testing sessions,” Halliday said.
Health officials have not yet heard back. A call to FEMA by The News Tribune was not immediately returned.
The health department hosted a five-day drive-thru testing site at the Tacoma Dome last week for first responders, health care workers and people at high risk of catching the virus.
The site tested 996 people and filled all available testing slots the first day on March 21. There were roughly 2,500 tests provided for the event.
At a special meeting Friday, Tacoma city manager Elizabeth Pauli said the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is ultimately in control of what to do with the leftover testing kits.
“It’s not our decision what happens to the balance of the test kits,” Pauli said.
The information led some City Council members to make the case that the tests should be used locally, and soon.
“Even so, won’t we need access to these tests in the coming days and weeks?” McCarthy said in his statement to The News Tribune. “Blaming the federal government won’t save a single life. Let’s step up for the residents of Tacoma and Pierce County where infections are rapidly escalating. These tests must be immediately deployed in our community.”
Council member Robert Thoms told The News Tribune on Tuesday he wants to do whatever he can to get any remaining or unused tests in the hands of hundreds of people in the area working in the health care industry and or as first responders.
Thoms sees the delay as a failure by the Trump administration to ramp up the response to COVID-19.
“The Trump administration should be flooding hot zones like ours with these tests and the capacity to analyze them,” he said.
Both McCarthy and Thoms brought up their concerns at Friday’s special council meeting.
McCarthy questioned why the testing site was closed with testing kits still available.
Pauli said the testing event was designed to be five days only and that some people who registered did not show up to get tested.
Thoms said he’s drafting a letter to try to open up the use of the test kits.
Gov. Jay Inslee said in a media conference on Monday that the state was in need or more “critical supplies,” from ventilators to test kits.
“We’re going to need a lot more help from the federal government before we are out of the woods,” Inslee said. “We are way, way, way short on our testing capability, as is every state in the United States.”
