COVID-19 Test Backlog Prevents Attempts To Contain Infection

“If we don’t return test results in the timeframe we allow [isolating infected people and tracing their contacts]Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University, said:

Many schools and colleges will be reopening in the coming weeks, relying on active and regular testing of students and staff, increasing the urgency of increased delays. In addition to this full storm-people with flu-like symptoms seek the COVID-19 test to rule out the infection, so the system could be even more strained as the flu season approaches. There is.

Dr. David Hummer, an infectious disease specialist at Boston University and a doctor at the Boston Medical Center, said:

North Carolina-based LabCorp and New Jersey’s Quest Diagnostics are the two largest laboratories handling COVID-19 tests nationwide, each with significant capacity since the pandemic a few months ago. It is increasing and says it is continuing its expansion efforts. However, they said their growth had little to lead the recent fast-growing demand.

Quest also opened a lab in Marlborough, Massachusetts in March, but it does not necessarily reduce latency as it processes national tests as part of its capacity expansion efforts. For patients who were not hospitalized or were suspected of being infected, we admitted that waiting averages for results in both Massachusetts and the country was at least one week on average. At the end of Monday, the company reported that the national average turnaround time had deteriorated and “a small subset of patients may experience up to two weeks of waiting time.”

Hoping to ease the backlog, on Saturday federal regulators approved Quest to launch a pool of test samples nationwide. This allows you to test up to four samples in one batch rather than running each test individually.

If the pool is negative, none of the four are infected with COVID-19. If the pool is positive, it means that one or more individuals in the pool may be infected. At that point, each sample in the pool is isolated and retested individually to identify infected people.

According to Food and Drug, in most cases patients are not tested due to the pooled sample, which results in fewer tests being run overall, less test supplies used, and more tests being run at the same time. Can receive results more quickly. management.

However, many Massachusetts local public health officials have seen no improvement in turnaround times, said Cigar Reis, chairman of the Massachusetts Institute of Health Professionals and Norwood’s health director.

“We are definitely in trouble,” Reiss said.

“Currently Massachusetts has a very low positive rate, so most test results are negative when you hit the tree,” she said. “But the anxiety of waiting is increasing anxiety for people so far. The system is not working without the swift handling of tests because the school is reopening.”

Early in the pandemic, the Massachusetts Department of Health reported daily outputs from many state-wide laboratories. But it stopped that few months ago and doesn’t include turnaround time in the data it reports daily. In addition, a recent report to federal regulators on plans to expand testing capacity in Massachusetts did not include reference to time required.

The State Department of Health said in a statement Monday that the current average state-wide turnaround time for Massachusetts in July was 2.2 days, and the state is monitoring the situation. However, there can be significant variability within that average as it includes both generally fast facilities with internal testing capabilities and facilities that rely on backed-up domestic diagnostic companies.

Some states require tourists to provide denial of the COVID-19 test, and some companies require regular testing of employees, causing a backlog. Mr Nuzzo of Johns Hopkins said policymakers should consider prioritizing patients with symptoms of COVID-19, those in need of hospitalization or treatment, and those who spend time in places with high infection rates. Said. The day of the pandemic when the shortage of tests and related supplies was serious.

“We need to figure out what is the best strategy for testing nationally, especially because we don’t think our resources will be completely constrained,” she said. “It’s a bit unrealistic to think that everyone can test every day… and then some bottlenecks will arise. That’s why we really need a national answer.”

BU infectious disease specialist Hammer said one of the bright spots in Massachusetts is that many health and research institutions are wealthier than their counterparts in other states that didn’t improve their internal testing capacity in the spring. That is.

But these institutions typically do not handle tests for employers and other organizations, so it is unlikely to ease their burden, he said.

One notable exception is the Broad Institute at MIT and Harvard University. Negotiated test contract Several colleges and universities process thousands of tests daily.

Broadr recently expanded its daily throughput to 35,000 tests, which can be completed in less than 24 hours, a spokesman said in a statement last week. According to a spokeswoman, the lab can grow to 100,000 daily if needed, but declines to comment on the new university’s exam program.

Broad, which opened a test lab in March, has so far not processed more than approximately 8,000 tests per day. website Post daily output.

Dr Michael Mina, assistant professor of epidemiology at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, said it was too late for leaders to rethink the national COVID-19 testing system. Current systems rely on diagnostic tests sent to the lab for processing and are not designed to handle the heavy loads they are currently facing.

“We are trying to insert a square peg into a round hole,” Mina said.

Instead, unlike the finger prick tests that diabetics use to maintain blood sugar levels, there are times when leaders invest time and resources to drive cheap tests that consumers can take at home. He said he came.

“We have the technology, the money, the know-how,” Mina said, and “the biggest problem compared to other countries.”

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