Virginia increased its testing capacity until May and June, when recently documented cases and positivity rates in the state were steadily declining. But the new cases are putting pressure on resources.
An increasing number of COVID-19 cases in Virginia are beginning to affect the state’s testing capacity.
More people are active now that orders to stay home have been lifted. Some return to their places of work. Others are taking family trips or going out more.
The changes mean more potential exposure and more people wanting evidence.
“The bottom line is that our capacity is not able to meet public demand,” said Dr. Parham Jaberi, deputy chief commissioner of public health and preparedness for the Virginia Department of Health.
Virginia increased its testing capacity until May and June, when recently documented cases and positivity rates in the state were steadily declining. But once cases started to increase again in July, the time it took for labs to process them began to grow further.
The recent increase in COVID-19 cases can be attributed to Virginia and neighboring states that are taking steps to reopen, Jaberi said.
“As we open up our economy, and people go back to work, there are certain employers who request that their employees be evaluated. Or, for other reasons, people are not limited to the order to stay home and go out and back out again, “he said.
Some people are trying to take their typical summer vacation to visit family members who are part of the vulnerable population, so they want to be tested to make sure that they are not bringing the coronavirus to those family members.
More outbreaks arise due to increased activity around offices or meeting places.
“We are beginning to see in specific workplaces and other settings that we were not seeing when the orders to stay home were in place, because we are having more interaction,” Jaberi said, pointing to some areas of the state. have more outbreaks than others.
Those areas are located primarily on the eastern side of the state, including the Virginia Beach area.
Not all labs have the same delays. The biggest delays are in commercial labs. These labs are often used by healthcare providers and other retail sites. Some state-sponsored sites submit their tests to commercial laboratories.
Those labs receive tests not only from Virginia, but from across the country. With all states trying to reopen, the labs are inundated with so many tests that they can’t keep up with the two or three days they used to offer. Some people wait a week or more for results.
At state labs or hospitals, results come much faster, but wait times have still increased from one to two days to two to three days.
In the state, Jaberi said officials are working on other ways to speed up the process.
“We are going to work with larger laboratories and smaller laboratories across the state to create a network that can help support the state public health laboratory,” said Jaberi,
“We are going to use our federal stimulus dollars this year and work with the state to develop that plan on how we increase our capacity.”
He said the state is looking for other testing options. He claims that many of the current delays deal with current testing methods. There may be other tests on the horizon that may be better than the swab tests or molecular PCR tests that are currently being performed.
Tuesday was the first time in more than a month that a Virginia hospital reported difficulties obtaining personal protective equipment, according to the Virginia Hospital and Health Association, which publishes data on the state of the coronavirus patient through its dashboard. .
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