Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Florida to keep strict limits on virus testing
Officials worried state labs will be overwhelmed
Florida will not follow new national guidelines that allow doctors to order tests for anybody they suspect of having the new coronavirus, according to health care providers briefed on the state’s plan.
The federal changes allow doctors to test more people faster to contain the spread of the highly contagious virus.
Instead, Florida health providers have been advised to order tests only for people who fit a more narrow criteria: a history of travel to a high-risk area, or close contact with a confirmed coronavirus patient within 14 days of showing symptoms.
Why? Florida officials are concerned the state’s three labs — in Miami, Jacksonville and Tampa — would be overwhelmed by the number of tests, slowing the entire process.
Officials with the Florida Department of Health did not respond to a request for comment about
not testing under the expanded guidelines. “We will work with CDC if we reach an overwhelming volume of tests,” said Alberto Moscoso, communications director with the Florida Department of Health.
With four confirmed cases of COVID-19 among Floridians, concerned doctors want more sites to be available so they can test more people.
Daniel Perez, a Plantation infectious disease doctor, wants to follow the national guidelines. “I think it’s appropriate to test anyone we think has coronavirus,” Perez said. “As we start to see more cases, if there is a concern with a patient, we need to know whether someone is negative or positive for containment purposes. We need to know what we are dealing with.”
Currently, results from tests going through the state’s three labs are taking about 48 hours, and all “presumptive” positives still go to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lab in Atlanta for final confirmation.
The CDC broadened the testing guidelines on Wednesday, under the direction of Vice President Mike Pence and the national coronavirus response team, which has been under pressure to distribute test kits faster and more widely.
U.S. senators this week pushed Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn about his promise in a Monday news conference to have a million tests ready by the end of the week.
“The companies that we’re working with this on, they have the capacity to develop enough tests to send out by the end of the week — and this is a dynamic process, every day we’re hearing from additional manufacturers that they can do this,” Hahn said, predicting that 2,500 kits, each with 500 tests, will be ready by the end of the week. “That should give us the capacity in the hands of laboratories, once they validate, to perform up to a million tests.”
Hospitals in Florida want to be able to test faster, and more frequently, said Jaime Callahan, president of the South Florida Hospital & Healthcare Association. “The CDC change in criteria is contingent on the tests being more locally available. A lot of providers are concerned and want to do everything they can to be prepared for the worse-case scenario.”
In Boca Raton, Dr. Steven E. Reznick said he wants to be able to test patients with respiratory illness, regardless of the Florida restrictions, because he has a large elderly clientele.
“I want to follow the CDC’s new guidelines but if the state doesn’t want to run the test there is nothing I can do,” he said.
Reznick said health providers feel burdened right now with how to respond to suspected coronavirus cases. In fact, he may have to tell patients not to come in to his office. “If they can’t get tested and we don’t have the protective gear, when someone calls and wants to come into my office, we’re going to have to make the tough call.”
Perez said if a patient has symptoms, he also plans to tell them to stay home and call the health department. “I am discouraging them from coming to the office until they can figure out a way or means to get tested.”
In Sarasota, where one of the Florida cases has been confirmed, doctors are pushing hard for expanded testing. Nearly a dozen patients at Sarasota Memorial Hospital are waiting for coronavirus test results, and doctors at the facility are saying they want to test patients themselves instead of sending the samples to the Department of Health’s Tampa lab.
In response, Congressman Vern Buchanan of Sarasota is pushing for a federal bill that will better fund testing kits.
“After meeting this week with doctors and health officials in my district, it is clear we need to make sure that our hospitals and medical facilities have the resources they need to treat and contain the disease,” Buchanan said in a news release. “We need to dramatically ramp-up the supply of test kits, increase the number of locations where people exhibiting symptoms can easily get tested, and accelerate the process of getting results back — hopefully in less than 24 hours.”
Cases in Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday said a Florida resident currently in Washington state has tested positive for coronavirus.
The Washington State Department of Health alerted Florida officials about the new case and that the person was self-isolated. At a news conference in Orange County, DeSantis said the person had been traveling in Asia and will remain out of the state until testing negative for COVID-19.
This marks the fourth case among Floridians, including one in Manatee County and two in Hillsborough County.