Wisconsin demands more coronavirus testing when it sees “significant community reach”

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Early in the coronavirus pandemic, Lack of test supplies and staff in the laboratory Wisconsin and other states have had a hard time identifying infections and isolating those who are contagious. Four months after Governor Tony Evers declared the outbreak a public health emergency, the state dramatically expanded its testing capabilities. But experts say the Wisconsin population is appearing too few. As of Thursday, it may have stopped efforts to neutralize the virus that killed at least 831 people in the state.

With 83 laboratories in Wisconsin, you can run more than 24,000 tests daily. According to data voluntarily reported by the public, private and commercial laboratories to the State Department of Health.. That’s about seven times the capacity reported on April 1. An additional 24 labs are “planning testing”.

However, Wisconsin typically uses less than half of the reported capacity. DHS reported an average of approximately 11,700 test results per day for seven days, which was approximately 14,000 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Wisconsin June 3 record According to the report, 16,933 test results are below the 19,000 required to implement strategies to prevent spread, or 70,000 required to control outbreaks. Harvard Global Health Institute Analysis NPR conducted last month.

According to the survey, Wisconsin was one of 32 states that did not meet the mitigation criteria.

DHS authorities COVID 19 symptoms -Including cough, shortness of breath, fever, chills-or suspected exposure to virus. Ajay Sethi, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the Master of Public Health program, may have been delayed in testing due to the lack of many strong candidates.

“The only way to know if you have a COVID is to take a test,” he said. “When someone realizes they are shown for the test, it’s very important to make sure they need to go to take the test.”

Data visualization with Wisconsin Department of Health and Human Services

With the proliferation of known cases of the virus across states and countries, more participation is required. Wisconsin has set a daily record of confirmed cases four times since July 9th, approaching 1,000 cases one day, DHS data show.

“These numbers are not the result of more testing,” DHS Secretary Andrea Palm said on Tuesday in a media call. “These numbers are due to the widespread community here in Wisconsin.”

Chuck Walzecha, deputy manager of DHS’s public health department, called test volume an important piece of a complex puzzle. Harvard’s recommendations help map capacity needs because of the ongoing crisis, but it is even more important to have a “right test”.

This means targeting high-risk populations, active outbreak communities, and symptomatic people with close contact. Strategies include scrutiny of nursing homes surveyed by DHS 151 occurrences At least one coronavirus case. Even the early Evers administration of the pandemic Targeted test outreach For African Americans, Latin Americans, and tribal people.

“It would be great if everyone knew the infection and when they should stay home so they aren’t exposed to others,” Warzecha said. “Without that, we would have to be much more strategic about how to use the tests we have, so find the ones most at risk, quickly isolate viruses and spread You can prevent it.”

As the virus continues to spread nationwide, Wisconsin may face additional challenges, including lack of test materials. However, countries should not expect much support from the President Donald Trump’s administration, which has played a direct role in responding to the pandemic, the University of Pennsylvania.

“One of the problems with this national approach affecting the whole population is the fact that it was-each group is to make its own decisions,” he said.

Build test skills, experience hiccups

The Evers administration has promoted testing throughout the state expand Helps nearly 600 members of the Wisconsin Police Department collect specimens at specific locations. But the authorities may not be able to force everyone to take the test, and some may be ignoring the risk of the virus, so they may be avoiding experience, he said.

“I think it’s important to make people understand that if you create incentives and get infected, testing is the only way to see if it’s true,” he said.

According to Emmanuel, Wisconsin’s reported surplus capacity, if accurate, is below the national trend.

California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana And Colorado It kept people away and closed overwhelming test sites. Main offenders of the problem: Overwhelming supply chain For materials such as nasal swabs and reagents—the chemical supply contractions needed to perform the test Long wait For results, it takes time to track contacts and isolate people who test positive.

According to Emmanuel, the results will be “literally meaningless” unless reported within 10 days.

Wisconsin is not affected by reported capacity cushions or by local testing issues.

Some test applicants of Milwaukee And Madison Several hours of waiting were reported, according to media reports. On Iron River, 142 test samples on the National Guard site have been abandoned After being damaged while sitting in a hot vehicle. Also, some clinical laboratories can do more testing for chemical reagent deficiencies, Walzecha said.

According to Walzecha, the state has solved most of the early test problems and recognized the need for further improvements. One upgrade this month: an Online registration A tool at the National Guard test site aimed at reducing wait times.

Data visualization with WisContext

Can pool tests keep their promises?

Wisconsin is evolving its strategy as some experts propose new ways to increase efficiency.

In mid-April Emmanuel joined the Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Romer Call for a 10-week national strategy Increase your test to millions a day. “It should leverage thousands of laboratories in American universities, medical schools, and healthcare systems,” Duo wrote in The Atlantic. (About three months later, the United States had less than 800,000 tests daily, Atlantic COVID Tracking Project.. )

Emmanuel and Romer also described pool testing (combining samples from multiple individuals and testing them together) as a “promising path” to speed up processing and save supplies.

“If the pooled sample is negative, then everyone in the pool is negative. If positive, you can test the members of the pool individually,” the expert wrote. Other researcher Have Propaganda Of the method Potential..

Wisconsin considered a pooling test, Walzecha said. This approach is effective in communities with low virus rates, he said. But pooling can waste time and supplies at the COVID-19 hotspot, requiring more people to wait for a second test, he added.

In an interview Tuesday, Emmanuel called pooling a “squeaky way,” and the Trump administration provided little guidance or coordination to state and local public health leaders.

“A country like us, we should be able to do other things,” said Emmanuel. “For the past four months, we’ve been strengthening our supply chain, making sure we have enough machines, and we’ve actually put our capacity into a large test company.”

According to Walzecha, his teammates are learning a lot from the federal government as well as from state and local health departments.

“Everyone is doing the best they can,” he said.

However, more tests alone cannot stop the virus. Other actions are important, Warzecha added.

“People open too fast, people don’t wear masks in public places and spend a lot of time in the gathering place,” Walzecha said, “that’s not really enough happening. Test to stop.”

This story comes from a partnership between Wisconsin Watch and WPR. Bram Sable-Smith is Mike Simonson Memorial Researcher at WPR and is embedded in the newsroom at Wisconsinwatch (wisconsinwatch.org). We work with WPR, PBS Wisconsin, other news media, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Journalism and Mass Communication School. All work created, published, posted or distributed by Wisconsin Watch does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or its affiliates.