Virus testing expanded, but not speedier

It’s been more than a month since Ohio’s top health officials began expanding statewide coronavirus testing and including those who are at low risk or asymptomatic.

Gov. Mike Dewine repeatedly urged all Ohioans to be tested. Thousands have done so since June 11, when the state announced the expanded testing rules. About 6.3% have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Ohio Department of Health’s seven-day average.

But in the weeks since Dewine’s early pleas, some people have been confronted with fewer test sites, long hold times on the phone and longer wait times for results.

Kroger Health, the health-care division of the Kroger Company, offered drive-thru COVID-19 testing in Columbus in May and during the last two weeks of June. Those testing sites, at the Ohio Department of Taxation and Department of Public Safety buildings, were supported through the governor’s office.

Kroger has closed those sites and has no plans to host more, said Amy Mccormick, a Kroger spokeswoman.

Kroger Health announced July 1 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized a COVID-19 home test kit on an emergency basis.

The kit will be available only to front-line employees across Kroger's network of companies to start, McCormick said. The kits will be tested at Gravity Diagnostics, a clinical laboratory based in Covington, Kentucky.

Kroger Health plans to rapidly expand the availability of the home collection kits to other companies and organizations in the weeks to come, with the goal of processing up to 60,000 tests per week by the end of July, according to a news release.

CVS is still operating 12 central Ohio testing locations, with 31 other sites statewide, said company spokesman Joseph Goode. Four in-store testing sites will open in the Cleveland area to serve “highly vulnerable areas,” Goode said.

As more people are tested, results are taking longer.

“The increase in cases of COVID-19 in certain areas of the country is causing extremely high demand for tests across the board,” Goode said. “This has caused backlogs for our lab partners and is delaying their processing of patient samples.”

At CVS, it’s taking up to 10 days for patients to receive their results, Goode said. The chain’s lab partners are working to fix that, he said.

Test results from Labcorp also have been taking longer. What initially was a one to two day turnaround has become four to six days in some cases, said Kelly Smith Aceituno, a Labcorp spokeswoman. The average time for hospitalized patients’ results is shorter, she said.

Iahn Gonsenhauser, chief quality and patient safety officer at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, said the university has seen much higher volumes of people seeking coronavirus tests. On Monday alone, more than 1,200 patients were tested for the virus.

Gonsenhauser said testing sites were more varied in earlier days of testing, as providers figured out what would work best. Now, the university tests consistently at three different sites: the Jameson Crane Sports Medicine Institute, Ohio State East Hospital and at the Columbus Public Health building.

With higher numbers of people getting tested, Gonsenhauser said the university’s COVID-19 call center’s lines have been inundated. The center receives more than 5,500 calls a day, which is why some people are experiencing longer wait times to get scheduled. shendrix@dispatch.com @sheridan120