Covid testing faces delays — again — as demand spikes ahead of the holidays

Vicky Amores, a New York City-based inside designer, is touring to Florida for Thanksgiving to see her household. But first, she desires to get examined for Covid-19.

She trekked first to a CityMD pressing care location in midtown Manhattan, the place she was advised at round 10 a.m. on Tuesday that the location had already reached its capability for the day. So she went uptown to a different CityMD location on East 86th Street the place the line stretched round the block with greater than 60 socially distanced sufferers ready to be examined.

Like many individuals, Amores desires to get examined ahead of the holidays. Others ready in line mentioned their office required common screening. Another lady ready at the similar CityMD, Elizabeth Abelt, mentioned she was going to dinner with a “very paranoid” good friend Tuesday night time who requested her to get examined beforehand. Abelt mentioned she had waited for greater than 5 hours to get examined.

With the holidays approaching, some firms calling employees again to the workplace and anxiousness over the virus rising with the every day case depend, demand for correct Covid-19 testing is spiking. An common of 1.6 million Covid-19 assessments had been run daily over the final week, in contrast with a seven-day common of lower than 900,000 in July, in accordance with information compiled by the Covid Tracking Project, which is run by journalists at The Atlantic journal.

The surge in demand is but again stressing the provide chain for PCR molecular assessments — the gold customary in Covid-19 testing — resulting in lengthy traces for testing, shortages in testing provides and processing delays throughout the nation.

“For months, our urgent care sites have been extraordinarily busy, seeing millions of patients for typical urgent care needs plus increasing numbers of people seeking medical evaluation and a COVID-19 test,” CityMD mentioned in a message to sufferers final week. “As you may have noticed, long lines are a daily fact at nearly every CityMD as we see a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases across the region.”

It’s not simply CityMD places. Labs nationwide cannot get sufficient vital testing provides. The American Clinical Laboratory Association, an trade commerce group, warned final week that its members are “facing delays or cancellations on orders for critical supplies, such as pipette tips.”

“The surge in demand for testing will mean that some members could reach or exceed their current testing capacities in the coming days,” the affiliation’s president, Julie Khani, mentioned in an announcement. “In cases where the number of specimens received exceeds an individual laboratory’s testing capacity, there could be an increase in their average time to deliver results.”

Quest Diagnostics, one of the largest scientific lab operators in the nation, acknowledged Tuesday that it, too, is struggling to fulfill demand. Demand for Quest’s molecular assessments is up about 50% in contrast with the final week of September, the firm mentioned, including that there is an industrywide scarcity of testing provides.

Quest’s common turnaround time for molecular assessments is now “slightly more than” two days for all sufferers, together with high-priority sufferers who’re already in the hospital or want a Covid-19 take a look at to be cleared for surgical procedure.

The present rise in testing demand is “modest,” Quest mentioned. But it expects circumstances and demand to rise “for the foreseeable future, which may cause turnaround times to grow,” the firm mentioned in an announcement.

LabCorp, one other nationwide operator of scientific labs, can also be starting to see a surge in demand that is pressuring turnaround time. On Wednesday, the firm mentioned its common turnaround time was greater than a day, the longest it has been since the surge in July and August had folks ready a number of days or extra for his or her Covid-19 take a look at outcomes.

“As the holiday season approaches, we are closely watching the trend, and we encourage everyone to wear masks, wash hands, socially distance, and follow local guidelines for group gatherings and keeping safe,” the firm mentioned in an announcement.

Quest additionally requested folks to comply with public well being precautions to curb the outbreak, saying “we can’t do it alone.”

Deepak Nath, president of laboratory diagnostics at Europe-based Siemens Healthineers, mentioned some labs may need the capability to course of extra assessments, however the confused provide chain is constraining their means to take action. He mentioned the issues have shifted with time. Early on, lack of reagents, that are chemical substances used to course of the assessments, had been inflicting delays. Now they’re brief on swabs and different consumable provides, he mentioned.

With a excessive quantity of every day new circumstances not simply in the U.S., but additionally throughout Europe, the provide chain might face some if its best challenges but, he mentioned.

“The supply chain is truly global,” he mentioned. “It’s a very specialized industry, so it’s not like there are many players.”

Earlier this month, the American Society for Microbiology revealed the findings of their latest survey, which confirmed that 134 scientific labs reported operating at a mean Covid-19 testing capability of 50.8% — which means the scarcity in provides has them operating at about half of their regular capability.

The group mentioned that “this data highlights that supply shortage is still an ongoing concern.”

Dr. Patrick Godbey, president of the College of American Pathologists and the director of two labs in Georgia, mentioned he is “very worried” about with the ability to meet the wants of his sufferers in the weeks ahead. He defined that PCR assessments can’t be changed by different assessments in a hospital setting as a result of clinicians want to verify the prognosis with a excessive diploma of certainty to find out care.

“The quicker that we can do the test, which translates to the closer to home that we can do the test, the better for the patient, because you can make medical decisions much more quickly,” he mentioned in a cellphone interview. He added that his labs can all the time ship samples out to different labs, however that can take longer and the longer the take a look at takes to return, the much less useful it’s.

Godbey mentioned that to focus provides on Covid testing, some hospitals have stopped offering different diagnostic providers in-house, such as sexually transmitted infections testing, which may have its personal public well being penalties. Still, he mentioned, labs are operating out of provides, together with pipette ideas, nasal swabs, chemical substances and even educated personnel, who’re more and more burned out from months of grueling hours.

“I do not have enough,” Godbey mentioned. “I’m very worried that as the cases go up, that I will not have enough reagents and I will not have enough consumables.”