As testing demand surges, results lag, sometimes by over two weeks
Laboratories in Harris County becoming more overwhelmed as requests outpace capacity
The number of COVID-19 tests performed in Harris County increased by 81 percent in June, and some people are waiting more than two weeks for their results, according to state and county officials.
In June alone, 138,470 tests were administered in the county, bringing the total since March to 308,064, per figures from Texas Health and Human Services. As more people seek testing, commercial laboratories doing the bulk of Houston’s molecular diagnostic tests for the novel coronavirus are becoming more overwhelmed by requests for processing.
“We have been getting complaints about delays in getting results because there are just so many being processed,” said Martha Marquez, public information officer for Harris County Public Health.
The average wait for results from commercial labs, which are used by all the county’s public testing sites as well as most private sites, is now 16 days, according to Harris County Public Health officials. The average was
five days in March. For hospitals that process tests in-house, the average wait is seven days, compared with four in March.
Because some of the county’s testing sites are funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which contacts laboratories to process tests, Marquez said local officials don’t control which labs receive the tests.
FEMA has contracted with a number of commercial labs, Marquez said, which is why people have been experiencing differing wait times.
Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp, private firms with laboratories across the country, are experiencing a surging demand for COVID-19 molecular testing with orders outpacing capacity, according to the companies.
“This week, we expect to ramp up our capacity to reach 115,000 of these tests a day,” said Kimberly Gorode, a spokesperson for Quest Diagnostics.
There are enough supplies to meet its current target, Gorode said, but the company is working with industry partners to obtain enough to process 150,000 tests a day.
LabCorp says it expects its capacity to increase from 130,000 to 150,000 tests per day by midJuly.
The turnaround time not only varies by daily demand, but also by region, according to the labs, and results are expedited for priority patients.
Quest Diagnostics, which operates around the globe, reports it has processed about 5.75 million COVID-19 diagnostic tests and about 2.2 million antibody tests.
Testing options
Harris County Public Health’s community testing map lists 52 COVID-19 testing sites. Of those, 13 are run by government agencies and 39 are operated by private entities such as hospitals and urgent care clinics. Patients may also be able to find testing through their private care providers.
Both government-run and private testing sites in the Houston region report they have regularly reached testing capacity for the last two weeks.
For public sites, there is a cap on how many tests can be performed. The Houston Health Department’s
FEMA-affiliated sites administer a total of 1,300 tests each day they are open. The department’s mobile unit is capped at 250 tests a day. The daily capacity for all of Harris County Public Health’s sites is 2,300.
By contrast, Harris County’s total population for 2019 was 4.7 million people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Chelsea Thomas, 31, said she was turned away from the public testing site at San Jacinto Community College last week after waiting hours, even though she had a scheduled appointment.
Thomas, who lives in East Downtown and tested positive for the virus last month, said she traveled back to the site in Pasadena
again the next day because it was the closest that had appointments available.
“That time, I waited five hours to get tested, even with an appointment,” Thomas said.
Eight days after getting the test, Thomas said she still hasn’t received her results.
At private testing sites, such as Legacy Community Health’s clinics, there isn’t a set cap for the number of tests that can be used in a day. But the clinics are limited by their providers’ schedules.
“Each week the number of tests we do is different,” said Jessica Michan, director of public relations for Legacy Community Health. “We also have to make time for patients who are coming in for other medical needs.”
‘Definitely wasn’t easy’
Many personal care providers require patients to see a doctor to screen for the virus before they will perform tests.
Lesley Martin del Campo, 38, of Cypress, said she had three virtual visits with her doctor at Houston Methodist Hospital to talk about her symptoms before she could receive a COVID-19 test last week.
Though she got her results fairly quickly, Martin del Campo said she isolated herself from her two young children and husband for nearly a week, in part because she was waiting to be authorized by a doctor to get the test. She said she did not have the virus.
“It definitely wasn’t easy,” Martin del Campo said of the days of isolation away from her family.
Pharmacy clinics are another private testing site option, including those at a handful of Houston Walmart, Walgreens and CVS Pharmacy locations.
Daniel Lopus, of Midtown, said getting tested at the CVS in Bellaire last week was an easy process. He said he set up an online appointment and waited in his car for 30 minutes. Lopus said he got his results within six days.
Though he didn’t have any symptoms and wanted to be tested out of caution, he said the longer people have to wait for their results, the more time they must put their lives on hold.
“It’s really inefficient, and the tests are not very useful if you can’t get the results back within a couple of days,” he said.