TASK FORCE WILL TRACK TESTING IN VIRGINIA

Group to focus on expanding sites, increasing speed

A group of public and private health officials will coordinate to figure out how many coronavirus tests are needed per day and how those tests will be obtained as Virginia looks to eventually loosen stay-at-home restrictions.

The testing work group will be headed by former Virginia Health commissioner Karen Remley and state epidemiologist Lillian Peake, Gov. Ralph Northam said at a press conference Monday in Richmond.

The group will include hospital officials, long-term-care facility staff, emergency physicians and university health-care experts, as well as staff from state and private labs.

They’ll focus on three things: expanding testing sites and testing criteria, increasing the amount of tests per day and the speed at which results are available, and addressing factors that currently limit testing, such as the lack of availability of swabs.

“These are all critical components because testing isn’t just about the test itself,” Northam said. “Labs might be able to run tests, but until doctors have enough swabs to do the tests, and we have enough supplies to safely transport the tests, we cannot meet the need for testing.”

Virginia’s overall testing capacity remains unknown. At least two universities, some private labs and Virginia’s own labs are all running tests, and Northam said turnaround times have improved over

the weeks.

Testing has remained hard to come by across the country since the coronavirus pandemic took hold, with governments and health-care providers limiting who can get tested to the highest-priority patients, which include providers, first responders, hospitalized patients and people in nursing homes and other group living facilities.

In Virginia, 56,735 people — about 0.7% of the state’s total population — had been tested for the virus as of Monday. Nearly 9,000 people have tested positive or have a probable exposure to the coronavirus, according to the Department of Health. So far, 300 have died.

Northam said he learned on a call with Vice President Mike Pence and other governors on Monday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will also be sending a team to Virginia to help with testing vulnerable populations.

On Friday, Dr. Laurie Forlano, Virginia’s deputy commissioner of population health, said the state would soon begin testing people who are going to live in congregate settings, such as nursing homes and jails, not just those already inside those facilities.

The testing work group will include representatives from Sentara, Bon Secours, the University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Labcorp and the Medical Society of Virginia, a spokeswoman for Northam said in an email.

Northam said Monday that while hospitals have so far had enough bed space and staff to handle the increase in coronavirus patients, they’re still short on personal protective equipment and the components necessary to do a test, such as swabs and reagents, the chemicals used to run the tests.

He’s previously blamed the shortage on President Donald Trump, saying it was the federal government’s responsibility to provide testing, and states shouldn’t be competing against one another to get the necessary supplies for widespread testing.

Monday marks the third straight day when the number of new cases has declined — from 602 on Friday to 453 Monday. Trump’s guidelines for states to start loosening stay-at-home restrictions start with a 14-day decline in the number of positive cases reported.

But Northam said Monday there were still nearly 500 new cases per day over the weekend, and the clock wouldn’t start on the downward trend until Virginia hits its peak, which he said will likely be at the end of the week, according to one model.

The guidelines also say states should have robust testing programs for at-risk health-care workers and the ability to test for antibodies, which show someone contracted the virus and may have developed some immunity to it.

But the guidelines don’t include instructions for how to expand and pay for testing of COVID-19 and antibodies, nor for how to implement surveillance so there isn’t a spike in cases as restrictions are loosened.

That’s what the state work group will be determining, Northam said.

“I want our businesses to be able to be open again and people to get back to work, but we have to do it in a safe manner and testing is the key to those next steps,” he said.