HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — A lot of West Virginians are waiting.
They’re waiting on word on whether they’re positive or negative for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and, at times, the waiting can go on for days or weeks after testing.
In Cabell County, Dr. Michael Kilkenny, physician director of the Cabell-Huntington Health Department, said the average turnaround time for COVID-19 results was four days, as of Friday.
“Ideal would be a 24-hour turnaround time,” he told MetroNews.
“The patients want that test result as quickly as possible.”
That’s because test results can determine behavior.
As for public health, “We want to isolate people sick with this illness as soon as we possibly can,” Dr. Kilkenny said.
“Having a delay of four days of testing time and then possible further delay if we don’t have good contact tracing could really mean that that person, through their entire infectious period, was not isolated and did not know to be isolated.”
His county and the other 54 counties in West Virginia are far from alone when it comes to delayed results.
Despite test processing capacity that continues to increase, growing demand nationally in hot spots for COVID-19 like California, Florida, Texas and elsewhere continue to strain commercial labs.
Another issue has been the availability of needed test processing supplies.
In Monongalia County, Dr. Lee Smith, executive director and health officer for the Monongalia County Health Department, said they have used QLabs, Quest Diagnostics, LabCorp and the lab for the state Department of Health and Human Resources.
Individual hospitals have concentrated their testing capabilities on inpatients, he said.
Overall, “Labs get behind and it can take several days to get the results,” Dr. Smith said during an appearance on Friday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”
“That’s unfortunate and I know that, from the national level down, people are looking at that and trying to make sure that the capabilities are geared up.”
In Kanawha County, officials with the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department said results earlier this week were taking an average of between four and five days.
As of Friday morning, COVID-19 case tracking data from the state DHHR included results from 251,565 laboratory tests conducted statewide since March. The cumulative positive rate out of those tests was 2.25 percent.
Until testing catches up with demand, Dr. Kilkenny said it was up to individuals to help stop coronavirus spread.
“People who get sick need to stay home. If we’re dependent on an imperfect testing strategy and an imperfect amount of contact tracing, we’re going to be spreading this disease while we’re waiting for that to tell us what to do,” he said.
“We need to make our own decisions based on how we feel and, if we’re sick, we need to stay home.”