Nursing homes’ broken test kits

The state Department of Health has ordered counties to ramp up coronavirus testing in nursing homes — but sent them more than 1,600 damaged test kits.

The distributed kits were hampered by “leaky tubes” and shoddy packaging, according to county leaders, as well as complaints described in e-mails obtained by The Post.

“There wasn’t enough medium to do swabbing,” said Livingston County Administrator Ian Coyle. “It also leaked in the bag so the gauze and swab were compromised.”

Of the 650 tests Coyle received, 291 were unusable.

Steuben County found 206 of 760 tests damaged; Dutchess had to ditch 399 of 2,348; St. Lawrence deemed “around 300” of its 609 unusable; and Rensselaer had to “immediately” send back 780 kits.

“It’s frustrating especially because securing test kits is so hard, then you get these that are damaged,” said Steuben County Manager Jack Wheeler.

The complaints came to light a day after Gov. Cuomo ruled that hospital patients must test negative for COVID-19 before they can be discharged to nursing homes, curbing a March 25 mandate that prohibited nursing homes from turning away coronavirus-positive people.

More than 5,200 nursinghome residents have died of confirmed or suspected cases of the virus, the DOH reports.

The DOH said that just a “small percentage” of the 30,000 test kits shipped to 29 counties Thursday were damaged, and that many could still be used.

“Twelve counties reported of leakage in some of the shipments, which is not uncommon and — as only 2.5 milliliters of fluid are needed to use the test — does not automatically make them unusable,” said spokesman Gary Holmes, noting 79,000 more kits were distributed on Monday.