On Monday, July 13, Quest Diagnostics, one of the major coronavirus testing companies in the US, announced that its average turnaround time for test results is now at least seven days or more for regular patients.
Their announcement is in line with coronavirus case spikes across the country, hindering testing providers from coming up with immediate results. On the same day, some states announced to roll back efforts to reopen the economy amid a surge in new coronavirus cases.
Gavin Newsom, California's governor, has ordered the statewide closure of all bars and halted the indoor operations of restaurants, wineries, theatres, and a handful of other non-essential venues.
Similarly, Oregon Governor Kate Brown also banned private indoor gatherings of more than ten people. She also implemented wearing face coverings when outside.
The company announced that an exception to the one week turn-around time would be given to patients of high priority, such as hospitalized COVID-19 patients or symptomatic health care workers.
Quest Diagnostics disclosed that the lagging turnaround times are due to the increasing demand for coronavirus testing, overwhelming the company's capacity. Furthermore, the company announced that coronavirus testing primarily rose in the South, Southwest, and West regions of the country.
Swelling of Cases Slows Down COVID-19 Testing
Health experts acknowledge that problems with long turnaround times are bound to arise, such as the prolonged ability to do contact tracing. Moreover, it would take some time before people are warned about possible transmission from being in contact with a person who tested positive to the virus.
With waiting periods this long, it's possible that someone could unknowingly continue to spread the virus for days after getting tested.
However, the long turnaround times are not limited to Quest. The American Clinical Laboratory Association warned at the end of June that the significant increase in coronavirus testing demand could prolong turnaround times for test results.
The Trump administration has received heavy criticism for coronavirus testing problems that have been going on for months since the pandemic started. Although the number of tests per day has unquestionably increased, there are still supply pressures preventing capacity from being boosted further.
Leading public health experts and democrats have since then been pressuring the administration to be more aggressive in increasing testing capacity.
Hoping For Lowered Number of Coronavirus Cases
Quest said on Monday, July 13, that they are restricted in their capacity while global supply constraints continue to be an issue. In the meantime, they encourage the public to follow the CDC's guidelines on preventing the spread of the virus.
The company appealed that the problem is not just a Quest issue. The wave in COVID-19 cases affects the laboratory industry as a whole.
Furthermore, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said the administration is investing in supplementary rapid testing at the point of care. She claims that the department is exploring the "pooling" of tests which could ease the burden by testing many samples at once.
She mentions that although longer turnaround times are seen in large commercial labs, the department estimates that four million tests last month were given, with results released in 15 minutes. She points out that the tests mentioned are not part of the commercial lab count.
