Kansas supply of COVID-19 tests ‘precariously low’; state could run out over weekend
The state of Kansas could effectively exhaust its supply of coronavirus tests this weekend, forcing private labs to carry the testing burden for now.
The state is running low on both kits and the nasal swabs used for the test, Lee Norman, the secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said Friday.
“We’re precariously low on the test kits,” Norman said, adding that the problem isn’t unique to Kansas. “Everybody is struggling with this.”
The message from Norman, at a Friday news conference, came as reported cases in Kansas rose to 44, a jump of 10 from the previous day. Johnson County has 23; Wyandotte County follows with nine. The number of Sedgwick County cases remains at one.
Kansas can test about 300 more people before running out of supplies, Norman said. The state currently tests 150 to 200 people a day.
Ashley Jones-Wisner, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said later Friday that the agency had secured an additional 100 tests. Still, the reinforcements represent less than one day of supply at current testing rates.
Asked whether the low supply was anticipated, Norman said that less than two weeks ago the number of tests conducted daily was barely in the double digits.
“The rate of growth in the testing has been dramatic,” Norman said in a brief interview after the news conference.
The state will send samples to commercial labs if it runs out tests, Norman said. The state is also working with hospitals in Wichita in Kansas City to give them the ability to conduct their own tests.
“Once the hospitals have the ability to do the testing, then the pressure will be off our state,” Norman said. He didn’t provide a timeline for how quickly that would happen.
Jones-Wisner said KDHE has asked the federal government for assistance. The availability of commercial labs should decrease the demand on state labs, she said.
Commercial labs have “huge capacity” but turn around results more slowly, she said. Right now, KDHE’s labs can provide results in a matter of hours.
“Hospitals in Kansas will have to send the samples to Virginia to one of the larger labs and then it will be days instead of our quicker turnaround,” Jones-Wisner said.
The shortage of testing supplies is further complicated by a backlog at testing facilities, said Steve Stites, chief medical officer at University of Kansas Health System.
“If it takes us two or four or five days to get a test result back, then what that means is we hospitalize a bunch of patients who need to be in the hospital but don’t need to be in isolation,” Stites said in a conference call with reporters.
With so many people under investigation, hospitals drain their infection control supplies – masks, gowns and gloves, he said.
And if a hospital does a lot of testing, it can place an extra burden on labs that are already behind and strain hospitals that are also short on supplies.
“You’re sending all of those tests to the reference lab or the state lab, and those guys get so far behind — which is where they are right now — they’re so far behind that they can’t get the answers out,” Stites said.
Norman defended the decision to limit testing in Johnson County after it became clear the virus is spreading through community transmission there. Earlier this week, he announced that Johnson County residents will only be tested if they are hospitalized with COVID-19 symptoms.
On Friday, Norman acknowledged fewer tests may sound counterintuitive. But he said that at a time when the number of regular flu cases is falling dramatically, individuals with respiratory illness are more likely to have the coronavirus.
“That is different than kind of what the public thinks: ‘Oh, they’re short on test kits, oh, they don’t want to test us for whatever the reason is,’” Norman said. “That’s not the issue.”
Still, the lack of widespread testing in Johnson County and elsewhere has exasperated some Kansans.
“I have felt a strong sense of frustration like a lot of people here about the lack of number of tests being sent to our providers,” Rep. Sharice Davids, a Democrat, said in an interview Friday.
Kansas on Thursday received two semi-tractor-trailers of masks, face shields, gloves and gowns, Norman said. The state sent some 20 shipments to numerous organizations throughout the state.
Rep. Roger Marshall, a Republican who is running for U.S. Senate, said state authorities, including KDHE, were working to stay prepared.
“My friends in the medical field have been calling and texting me regularly, asking me when this equipment will get here, and I’m glad it’s starting to arrive,” Marshall said in a statement. “We have to keep our doctors and nurses healthy so we can take care of patients!”
McClatchy DC’s Bryan Lowry contributed reporting
This story was originally published March 20, 2020 at 3:53 PM with the headline "Kansas supply of COVID-19 tests ‘precariously low’; state could run out over weekend."
