Two weeks for coronavirus test results? Fresno officials say it’s rare and help is on the way
After cutting a New York City vacation short, Mikayla Argain spent almost two weeks isolated at home in Fresno waiting on the results of a coronavirus test.
Argain visited in early March many New York City tourist attractions, such as Times Square, the Statue of Liberty and Broadway. Argain saw one of the final shows before Broadway shut down, and at the same theater where, according to The New York Times, an usher worked who tested positive for COVID-19.
Argain began feeling symptoms shortly after returning to Fresno. Argain went to Community Regional Medical Center in downtown Fresno on March 19 and was tested for coronavirus after testing negative for influenza A and B. Argain was told the results would be known in three to five days.
For nearly two weeks, Argain called Fresno County Department of Public Health daily to see if the results were in. On day five, Argain was told it might take up to nine days. Eventually, Argain started calling CRMC. It was unclear who exactly would release the results.
On March 31, Argain finally received a call that the test results were in: positive for COVID-19.
“The experience from day one has been very frustrating. I feel the information that’s been provided hasn’t been accurate or up-to-date,” Argain said. “I still depend on the sources I trust to give me information. It makes me feel very alone in this when the information just isn’t adding up.”
Frustrations with testing
Argain was one of 55 people who shared with The Bee their experiences in accessing testing. Forty of those people said they exhibited symptoms or believe they were exposed to COVID-19 but couldn’t access a test. For the people who did get tested, many waited more than a week for results. One person’s test was contaminated, and he had to be tested a second time.
Coronavirus testing remains a controversial and frustrating topic for residents, politicians and doctors alike. While the U.S. faces a major shortage of tests, other countries have made widespread testing a priority and found it to be a handy tool to slow the spread of the virus.
Dr. Rais Vohra, Fresno County’s interim health officer, said that while long waits for results such as Argain’s do happen, they’re rare. But the delays are “a source of constant frustration for us,” he said during a Wednesday news briefing.
Most results are returned within three to six days, he said.
“But we do hear about these extraordinary long delay times, which obviously no one is happy about,” Vohra said. “And it’s hard for us to track down every single test delay from the public health perspective. What I will say, however, is that it doesn’t end up changing that much the advice that the medical providers are providing to our patients.”
That was true in Argain’s case. When a physician delivered the news of the positive test result, Argain’s instructions remained the same: stay home, take Tylenol to reduce their fever, and call 911 if their breathing became so labored they couldn’t speak.
Argain said it was important to share the testing experience to show others the seriousness of the virus and to encourage people to practice social distancing.
“This illness has been the worst illness I’ve ever gone through,” Argain said.
Test numbers
On April 3, Fresno County’s public health department reported 1,650 people had been tested, a big jump from the number reported earlier in the week, which was in the 300s.
The health department said some clinical providers conduct tests, and not all negative tests are reported to the health department. The health department has conducted 185 tests. Eleven test results remained pending on Friday. There were 100 confirmed cases and one coronavirus-related death in Fresno County as of Friday.
“This is a little bit of a chaotic picture because we definitely find out about all the positive tests, but we don’t always find out about all the negative tests that are being conducted by a number of the different private labs as well as universities and academic centers that are working with our county partners,” Vohra said.
As of April 3, 297 tests were conducted in Madera County and 13 test results remained pending.
In Tulare County, the public health lab completed 801 tests by Wednesday, said Tammie Weyker-Adkins, a public information officer. More than 650 tests were for Tulare County residents, and nearly 150 were tests from other counties. Tulare County also does not have data for all the negative tests since some hospitals and clinics use commercial labs. The turnaround rate for results in Tulare County is 12-24 hours, Weyker-Adkins said.
In Kings County, the health department reported collecting 116 samples on Friday.. The original turnaround time for results ranged from two to four days, said Heather Silva, a program specialist with the health department. But, that time frame extended because of the high number of tests the labs received daily, she said.
Kern County, with about 100,000 fewer residents than Fresno, is leaps and bounds ahead of other San Joaquin Valley counties in the number of tests completed. Kern reported on Friday that over 4, 504 tests were done. More than 1,800 results were pending.
Commercial labs from companies such as Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp also are testing patients, but counties have struggled to access data from those labs. From March 9 to April 1, Quest performed and reported results of more than 400,000 COVID-19 tests to providers and patients across the United States, but data for the number of tests done in the San Joaquin Valley or even California is not available. The average turnaround time for results is four to five days, Quest said in a news release.
Testing requirements changing
In the last few weeks, testing requirements have changed in Fresno, Vohra said. At first, tests were prioritized for people who traveled to coronavirus hot spots and showed symptoms. Now that the community spread has increased in California, travel-related cases are a lower priority, Vohra said.
Patients who are prioritized for testing now are those who show symptoms and are at high risk of medical complications or dying. Other patients who are a top priority for testing are symptomatic people who have a higher risk of passing along COVID-19 to a large number of people, such as healthcare workers.
If people have COVID-19, the most important tool remains isolating oneself, not testing, Vohra said.
What are physicians seeing?
Physicians and staff at United Health Centers’ 16 San Joaquin Valley locations have smoothly transitioned to telemedicine, Dr. Robert Shankerman said.
The United clinics overall haven’t experienced many panicked patients seeking tests. United’s physicians are following the county health departments and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for testing.
“We’re trying to take care of a lot of medical problems over the phone,” Shankerman said. “I think we’re really doing a great job of it. (Patients) love being called and us checking up on them.
“I think we’re playing a big role in the calm in what you’re seeing in Fresno,” he said. “Overall, we have a very calm and cooperative community.”
So far, United has tested about 100 patients for COVID-19 and returned one positive case, Shankerman said. The medical provider is working with LabCorp to access and process tests, he said.
More tests coming to Fresno
Vohra said Fresno should see a an increase in testing capacity in the coming weeks, but it will take time to ensure quality control.
The hospitals and partners mainly are focusing on rapid PCR tests, Vohra said, referring to swabs that can be processed within a few hours. Those partners also are exploring obtaining new tests from Abbott Laboratories, as well as tests from Biosphere Inc. which uses blood samples to determine whether someone has antibodies for coronavirus.
“All I can tell you right now is that I know that some of our medical partners and our hospitals are actively pursuing acquiring those technologies,” Vohra said. “And I’m sure they’re actually going to tell us whenever they’re ready to go online with those.”
This story was originally published April 2, 2020 at 2:10 PM.