Missouri expecting to receive thousands of coronavirus test kits from feds this week

Just a day after non-essential businesses reopened their doors, Missouri’s health director announced that the state would be receiving a large shipment of testing kits from the federal government.

Missouri will receive a “huge store” of testing kits from the White House, state health director Dr. Randall Williams said at Gov. Mike Parson’s news conference Tuesday afternoon.

The shipment would consist of 200,000 swabs and 150,000 viral transport media tubes. It’s expected to arrive either Thursday or Friday, Williams said. He could not confirm at Thursday’s press briefing if it had yet arrived.

Expanding testing has been one of Parson’s core pillars for his plan to reopen the state. Currently, Williams says Missouri has a testing capacity of 60,000 tests per week.

That capacity isn’t being met. According to state data compiled by the COVID tracking project, the state has performed a total of 103,622 tests. Last week, Missouri performed 15,526 tests.

Some hospitals, however, say they don’t have the equipment to meet that testing capacity.

“DHSS says it has capacity, but we have hospitals that continue to represent they have shortages of certain supplies needed for testing,” Dave Dillion, Missouri Hospital Association spokesperson, said in an email. “At the same time, expansion of medically necessary elective care will increase the need for testing.”

Dillon said it’s hard to refute what Williams was saying without any context.

“However, testing is part of the solution, and lab tests and quick tests will be necessary to clear patients, while antibody tests will help us (public health stakeholders) know who has had the virus,” Dillon said in an email.

Williams said part of the reason why the state has seen an increase in the number of cases is related to the expansion of medically necessary elective care. On Wednesday, he said that hospitals are testing pre-operative patients for COVID-19 and that is likely contributing to the state’s jump in cases.

He also maintained that state and private labs have the capacity and equipment to meet that 60,000-test capacity.

“I understand you will hear pockets of people saying that they can’t get the sampling kits,” Williams said. “But by and large, I’m told — and it’s been my experience — in the last 10 days that more likely than not we can usually get those.”

Parson said his decision to reopen the state prior to receiving this shipment of testing kits was because the resources aren’t available.

“Everyday we have a goal in mind of what that stockpile is going to look like for the state of Missouri at some point, and we’re going to build towards that stockpile,” Parson said at his Wednesday afternoon news conference. “But, right now it’s a matter of just getting it on the front lines and making sure our hospitals, our healthcare emergency personnel, everybody that has that gear needs it.”

Williams defended this decision and said that waiting to have a reserve would not be the best strategy.

“We’ve learned through this, and the governor has reiterated this many times, that it’s just really important going forward that Missouri develop its own capacity, its own wherewithal, its own initiative to go out and do that,” Williams said. “So, we’re where we are today largely because of that initiative and what will be forthcoming from the federal government will just be [an] added benefit.”

This story was originally published May 7, 2020 at 2:55 PM.