With shortage of coronavirus tests, Johnson County might pay private labs to do more
In the face of rapidly rising coronavirus cases in Johnson County and a clampdown on who can get tested, officials on Thursday called for more funds to pay private labs to step up testing.
“Yesterday we spoke with four different labs that are able to carry this out,” said Sanmi Areola, who started this week as director of the Johnson County Department of Public Health and Environment. “The opportunity to do the testing is there, but we do need the resources to be able to implement it.”
The number of confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in Johnson County increased by four Thursday morning, bringing the county’s total to 50, by far the highest in Kansas. Just a day earlier, Johnson County health officials reported an additional 10 cases of COVID-19.
The Johnson County Board of Commissioners on Thursday voted to have staff study how much increased testing at private labs would cost. The move came after Kansas Secretary of Health and Education Lee Norman announced last week that tests would be reduced in the county so the state won’t run out.
The county began testing only people who need to be hospitalized, which drew an outcry from a number of elected officials.
Areola told commissioners on Thursday that limiting testing is the wrong approach.
So far, up to 800 tests have been done in Johnson County. But Areola said about 4,000 residents should be tested, including some who are asymptomatic, in order to fully understand the scope of the outbreak.
He said the goal is not to test everyone in the county, but to have a strong enough sample to collect data, track the spread of the virus and determine if the county’s stay-at-home order is effective.
“What we need to do to get a better picture of what’s going on in the county is to have more broader testing,” he said. “We have to do more. We have to test people who are not necessarily hospitalized, but who are able to spread the virus, so we can make sure they are isolated.”
Areola said commercial labs have the capacity to perform more coronavirus tests. But the county would need to allocate the funding to buy test kits and pay for laboratory analysis.
As Kansas faces a shortage of tests, Norman has said the state could send more samples to commercial labs, which have greater capacity but are slower to release the results. Statewide, there are concerns about a backlog at testing facilities, as well as increased testing draining hospitals of their infection control supplies, such as masks and gloves.
With roughly two-thirds of the positive results coming from tests in private labs, more than 3,000 Kansas residents have now been tested.
While pushing for more tests, Johnson County officials voiced concerns about a depleting number of available hospital beds in Johnson County. Public Health Officer Joseph LeMaster said there are 148 intensive care unit beds available, and 104 people have been admitted into hospitals who are showing symptoms of coronavirus. Additional tests would put further strain on hospital capacity.
But Johnson County commissioners on Thursday emphasized that there is no time left to waste.
“If it’s a matter of putting funding toward purchasing those supplies, we need to move on that as quickly as possible,” Commissioner Janeé Hanzlick said.
The board voted to direct staff to develop a plan for allocating the funding and purchasing the resources to increase testing in Johnson County. Commissioner Mike Brown said that once the report is completed, the board will likely hold an emergency meeting to consider the proposal.
This story was originally published March 26, 2020 at 1:27 PM.
