Here’s how the Pierce County health department plans to distribute 1,400 test kits sitting in storage

The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department has rolled out a plan for how it plans to distribute more than 1,000 test kits leftover from a drive-thru testing event more than a week ago.

The kits sat in storage for nearly a week until Wednesday when FEMA, which supplied them, released them to the health department for local testing.

The test kits, which total 1,400, will be distributed to smaller entities around the county, including:

• Long-term care facilities with outbreaks

• First responders

• Clinics and testing sites in rural locations

• Community Health Care clinics

• Puyallup Tribe

There will not be another drive-thru testing site like the one at the Tacoma Dome, health department spokesperson Steve Metcalf said.

There were 996 people tested at the Tacoma Dome from March 25-28.

Of those, 2 percent tested positive for COVID-19, according to results shared Wednesday.

Puyallup Tribe spokesperson Michael Thompson confirmed Friday that the Puyallup Tribal Health Authority (PTHA) received 70 kits.

PTHA has about 12,000 patients that are Natives from about 250 tribes. About 20 percent are members of the Puyallup Tribe.

The PTHA is not setting up a testing center; the kits will be used for patients.

“The Tribe is thankful the kits are available and were made available to PTHA,” Thompson said.

Providing the tests to local partners will conserve the limited equipment like masks and gloves that would be needed at a mass testing location and expedites specimen processing and result reporting, according to the health department

“Our goal is to use the strong systems that exist in our community and provide tests where the people need them most,” the health department said in an update on Thursday evening.

This story was originally published April 3, 2020 at 3:23 PM.