Testing results still slow in Arizona

Some wait 12 days to see if they have COVID-19

Arizonans continue to face extended wait times for COVID-19 results as testing demand rises, with the state’s largest lab partner reporting average turnaround times of nine to 12 days for people who aren’t hospitalized.

But spokespeople from Gov. Doug Ducey’s administration claim they’re on track to turn around the situation in the next two weeks, with new equipment allowing labs to process 35,000 samples a day by the end of July.

Persistent processing delays — well beyond the 24- to 48-hour target cited by Department of Health Services director Dr. Cara Christ — have hindered officials’ ability to trace and isolate confirmed and possible cases in recent weeks.

That has jeopardized efforts to control infections in a state facing one of the worst COVID-19 spikes in the country.

The delays also have complicated situations for individuals, stopping Arizonans awaiting test results from getting medical or dental procedures, returning to work, traveling or visiting family members.

“While testing delays (are) an issue playing out in many states, delays of more than a few days are unacceptable,” Patrick Ptak, a spokesman for Ducey, said Tuesday.

He said the state had “prioritized increasing testing, as well as speeding up the turnaround time for results.”

What’s taking so long?

A spokeswoman for Sonora Quest, the private company doing the bulk of Arizona’s testing, attributed the nine- to 12-day turnaround times to a “significant increase in testing demand.”

Through June and early July, the number of people demanding tests outstripped testing supplies.

“We are working as quickly as possible to bring additional testing instrumentation online, with a goal of reducing turnaround time in the coming weeks,” the spokeswoman, Jessica Pridonoff, said in an email.

She noted that “priority” samples, those done in hospitals, already are being processed within 24 hours. But the “goal is to have test results available within 24-48 hours for anyone,” she said — a target the lab was meeting earlier in the pandemic.

LabCorp, another company doing COVID-19 tests in Arizona, also cited

“significant increases in testing demand and constraints in the availability of supplies and equipment” when noting increased turnaround times earlier this month.

Shortages of nasal swabs and reagents needed to conduct tests have contributed to delays throughout the pandemic.

Like Sonora Quest, LabCorp said hospitalized patients receive test results more quickly.

Pridonoff said Sonora Quest has a team working 24 hours a day to install, validate and put into use new production lines to speed up its ability to process samples at higher volumes.

Ptak, the Ducey spokesman, said he expected the additional processing equipment to be “coming online in stages over the next several days.”

“This would put us on track to have the capacity to process 35,000 tests a day by the end of the month,” he said.

Former health chief: ‘What gets measured gets done’

One way to get faster results in the meantime: Send specimens out of state.

That’s what new federal testing sites in Maryvale and south Phoenix are doing.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will process specimens from those locations in other states, relieving Arizona labs of having to process additional tests, according to Daniel Scarpinato, the governor’s chief of staff.

Those results should come back in two to four days, Scarpinato said.

Arizona State University also is promising a one- to two-day turnaround for its saliva-based COVID-19 tests, saying it has capacity to handle more testing.

So far, though, the federal and ASU options haven’t seen the long lines of test seekers observed earlier this summer.

It’s possible people are unaware the additional sites are available, since they only recently came online or they were discouraged by the long wait times experienced by others.

Arizona Public Health Association director Will Humble called for the state to add a turnaround time metric to its public COVID-19 data dashboard.

“The governor finally set a goal to improve test performance, but there’s still no public metric,” Humble, the state’s former health director, wrote on Twitter. “It’s the only way we can hold them to account. What Gets Measured Gets Done.”

“The governor finally set a goal to improve test performance, but there’s still no public metric. It’s the only way we can hold them to account. What Gets Measured Gets Done.”

Will Humble

Director, Arizona Public Health Association, in a tweet