State expands COVID-19 testing criteria

After sticking with a strict set of rules, the Florida Department of Health has finally expanded the testing criteria for COVID-19, allowing physicians to order a test based on their clinical judgment, mirroring what the CDC has been recommending.

According to new clinical guidance issued in an email to providers on Sunday, clinicians can choose to order a COVID-19 test even if their patient doesn’t fall within these six categories: contact with someone who has COVID-19; history of international or cruise travel; history of visits to domestic locations with community spread of the virus; hospitalization with acute lower respiratory illness of unknown origin; 65 years and older with chronic health problems; and immunocompromized.

The previous criteria only included history of travel, contact with someone who has COVID-19 and lower respiratory illness of known origin. Clinicians weren’t given the liberty to use their own judgment.

If doctors choose to order a test for their patients within or outside the six criteria, they need to

being collect the samples and send them to their health-care facility or a commercial lab like LabCorp and Quest.

Samples collected from patients who fall within the state’s six criteria can also be sent to one of the state’s three public health laboratories.

As of Sunday, Florida had 136 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among its residents, including four deaths. Since March, 1, when the first two cases of the illness were reported by the state, 684 people have tested negative and 514 tests are pending results. The number of tests in Florida has climbed steadily in recent days because commercial labs have come on board and expanded the testing capacity in the state.