COVID-19 Testing Hampered by Shortages

Efforts to ramp up COVID-19 testing for the fall flu season have been hampered by supply shortages. The lack of reagents, or chemicals needed to process the tests, has forced hospitals and medical centers to restrict testing to the sickest patients.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the number of COVID-19 tests performed nationwide has grown from 15.8 million in April to 37.6 million last month. But increases in demand caused by rising infections rates in certain areas has triggered supply scarcities. The Journal reports that 67% of labs are having difficulty getting reagents and test kits, according to a survey last month by the American Association for Clinical Chemistry.

The coronavirus has sparked a series of shortages in testing supplies since it slammed the country last spring. In July, COVID-19 test backlogs were caused by a shortage of pipette tips, disposable pieces of plastic that move liquid between test vials, according to The New York Times. As supply shortages plague the nation once again, labs are vying for critical materials.

“That’s the crazy part,” said Dr. Alexander McAdam, an infectious disease expert at Boston Children’s Hospital. “Whenever there’s a shortage, it’s lab versus lab, city versus city, state versus state competing for supplies.”

Experts said that the shortages will likely continue because we need the same chemicals and components to test for influenza. Hospitals are sending patients home who are not sick enough to be admitted and referring them to commercial testing laboratories that take two days to deliver results, instead of the 8 hours in a hospital setting.

Manufacturing companies that supply both the tests and chemicals for COVID-19 tests said they are “doing everything they can do keep up,” according to the Journal.

“This is a big country, and we still haven’t been able to settle the testing issue. It doesn’t make any sense,” said Dr. Michael Dacey, president of the Riverside Health System in eastern Virginia. His company, which includes five hospitals and 10 nursing homes, has slashed testing by 20% because of the shortages.