More testing needed

Area needs additional COVID kits, timely results and accurate data to stem the spread.

Love your family? Get tested. Hoping Minute Maid will open up to fans to see the Astros play? Get tested.

Want to send your kids back to school safely? Get tested.

Haven’t been tested in 30 days? Get tested.

The words, slightly paraphrased, are from Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner who, on Monday, reiterated the same message he’s been repeating since the early days of the novel coronavirus pandemic..

“Quite frankly, if you haven’t gotten tested,” Turner said at a press briefing, “you’re being irresponsible by not going and getting tested.” Can we get an Amen?

Like Turner, we encourage Houstonians to get tested for COVID-19. It is one of the keys of controlling the virus’ spread, along with social distancing and contact tracing. Testing helps health officials determine the patterns of infection and alerts those who test positive of the need to quarantine before they can pass the virus onto other people.

“Testing is the best public health tool available that can indicate how well we are doing as a city in slowing the spread of COVID-19. It offers the information that Houston needs to develop its positivity rate,” Porfirio Villarreal, the Houston Health Department spokesman, told the editorial board. “Testing also enables the department to perform its contact tracing efforts, which provide guidance to people confirmed with the virus so they can reduce the chances of their family and friends becoming infected. By protecting their loved ones, people with this devastating virus can protect our community and our health care systems.”

But merely encouraging people to get tested is not enough. Turner and other local officials can’t stop there. They must do all they can to first, make sure that tests and testing facilities are accessible to everyone, and second, to make sure there’s a process for returning results quickly.

One disturbing trend: Fewer are requesting tests, Villarreal says.

While that may result in shorter lines and speed up the process, the drop in testing could also mean that the public is getting complacent — exactly what Turner is warning against. We can’t drop our guard. The coronavirus has not gone away and neither should our measures to contain it.

In addition, Villarreal noted, the reporting of test results to public health entities is often delayed and missing key information. That hobbles efforts at contact tracing.

As Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testified during a July 31 hearing before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, in order to do contact tracing, “you need testing back within a reasonable period of time.”

At the same hearing, Adm. Brett Giroir, who serves as lead adviser on testing for President Donald Trump’s administration, admitted that getting all test results back within 48 to 72 hours isn’t possible because of “the demand and the supply” of tests.

City and county officials have teamed with federal agencies to beef up testing capacity — efforts that should continue.

In early August, for example, the U.S. Department of Heath and Human Services sent 30,000 nasal swab kits to Harris County Public Health to use for “surge testing” at Ken Pridgeon Stadium and San Jacinto College Central Campus. That increased the capacity at each site from 750 tests per day to 1,250, and sped results from 10 to 14 days to within three to five business days.

“These have been rushed to our area because of the need and because … we’re seeing incredibly slow turnaround times,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said at the time. In Harris County, about 580,000 tests have been conducted, according to the county’s COVID-19 dashboard.

The tests, however, were expected to run out by mid-August. Two additional high-volume capacity “surge” sites, run through the city of Houston Health Department at Darrell Tully Stadium and at the Kingwood Community Center, are expected to operate through Aug. 29.

After that? Turner and other local officials must continue to demand that state and federal agencies provide additional testing kits and help facilitate surge testing. They must push for testing sites to report results to public health officials within 24 hours.

Without access to testing and quick turnarounds for results, encouraging the public to get tested will just lead to increased backlogs and frustration. That won’t help anyone. It could even hurt.