The good news: I tested negative for COVID-19. The bad news? That was ages ago
My phone call from the Sedgwick County Health Department this week was welcome news:
A nasal-swab test for COVID-19 — which a friend so accurately described as “a Pap smear for your brain” — showed no sign of the virus.
A little less reassuring: The time span between my swab at the county’s drive-through testing site in June and my test result was 11 days.
Eleven days, during which I took recommended safety precautions — avoiding crowds, wearing a mask, using hand sanitizer, humming the ABC’s while washing my hands — but still went to a restaurant, shopped for groceries and ran other errands.
Eleven days. In coronavirus time, that’s an eternity.
I had no symptoms or known exposure to the coronavirus. I had decided to get tested — back before Sedgwick County temporarily suspended testing of asymptomatic residents — in part because I wanted to see how easily I could navigate the system.
I also agreed with Sedgwick County officials who said we need a more accurate picture of the virus in our community. Because people without symptoms can transmit COVID-19, the truest gauge requires testing a wide swath of people who feel perfectly fine.
Unfortunately, Kansas still trails far behind our region and the rest of the nation in the number of per-capita tests for the coronavirus.
Back in April, in the midst of a statewide stay-at-home order, we reported that Kansas ranked at the very bottom among U.S. states in per-capita testing.
Since then Gov. Laura Kelly ramped up testing, calling on massive amounts of supplies from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and deploying mobile testing vehicles to COVID-19 hot spots.
The state’s testing rate improved and we rose in the national rankings — but not exactly Jayhawk basketball style: We went from No. 51 to No. 45.
Here in Sedgwick County, health officials bemoaned a be-careful-what-you-wish-for run on tests, and they lacked the infrastructure and manpower to handle it.
Understandably, the first priority is residents with symptoms or those who have been exposed to someone with COVID-19. But even those patients are caught in a backlog.
Health officials “are still contacting the cases,” said Dr. Garold Minns, the county health officer. “But contact tracing is getting to the point we don’t have the person power to do it.”
Add to that an increased demand for COVID-19 testing nationwide. Quest Diagnostics, one of the country’s largest labs, says turnaround times for non-priority patients have increased from 3-5 days to 4-6 days.
The wait in Sedgwick County often is significantly longer. When I shared my experience on social media this week, some Wichitans reported waiting 12 days or more for test results — pretty much the entire length of their recommended quarantine.
Sedgwick County Health Director Adrienne Byrne says the county recently hired four temporary workers to improve turnaround times, but, “It’s a moving target.”
This doesn’t bode well for opening schools next month, for getting people back to work, or for avoiding another widespread shutdown. Several Wichita restaurants reopened last month, only to close again after employees tested positive for COVID-19 and others awaited test results.
Whatever the reasons, one thing remains clear: Kansas’ dismal testing process means we still don’t have a true picture of the virus’ spread — and that’s frightening, given the rising number of positive cases.
State and local officials must figure it out. We can’t wait.
This story was originally published July 7, 2020 at 12:44 PM.
