While the supply chain for once-scarce equipment remains intact, the sheer demand for testing is stretching sample collection sites and laboratory staff.
Testing laboratories at the center of efforts to track the spread of Covid-19 expect to face record demand in the coming weeks while their workforces are depleted by the very virus they’re surveying. Public health experts and testing company executives are concerned the surging Omicron variant could upend efforts to use Covid-19 testing to keep schools open, treat patients and make public gatherings safer. The Biden administration is relying on testing to keep the country going and help avoid a return to stricter public health restrictions. But there may not be enough workers to process an avalanche of tests. Vault Health CEO Jason Feldman, whose company runs Covid testing programs, said that about 40 percent of the staff at one of the company’s Northeast labs recently got sick, stretching the time it takes to turn around results. “I think what’s going to happen is as this thing moves across the big population states like Texas and California the s— is going to really hit the fan because there’s just not enough capacity of people, lab techs to keep these labs going,” Feldman said. While the supply chain for once-scarce equipment like test kits and pipette tips remains intact, the sheer demand for testing is stretching sample collection sites and laboratory staff. One pharmacy industry source told POLITICO that lab staffing issues are already limiting testing capacity and turnaround times for testing done through major retail chains. “The question is how well do they keep pace,” said Céline Gounder, an infectious disease specialist who advised the Biden transition’s Covid-19 response. “If you get to the point where — as we’ve seen in some cities — lines are hours long to get a PCR test and you go to every retail pharmacy in your neighborhood and they’re all sold out of rapid antigen tests, at some point people will give up and say it’s just trouble. It’s not worth it.” The U.S. is recording more than 2 million test results per day, a record high, according to a tracker maintained by Johns Hopkins University. But public health experts caution that number is missing millions of at-home test results due to widespread underreporting by the public and inconsistent data collection by public health departments across the country.
