How three state senators got their COVID test results in two days (or less)
What do state lawmakers — at least those attending the session at the state Capitol in Harrisburg — have more in common with National Basketball Association stars and Major League Baseball players than you?
Access to a fast turnaround on their coronavirus tests.
State Sens. Jay Costa, DForest Hills, Jake Corman, R-Centre County and Vince Hughes, D-Philadelphia, all got COVID-19 tests within hours of the July 14 news that their Democratic colleague Anthony Williams, D-Philadelphia, had tested positive for the coronavirus. Then, according to timelines established by Tweets and other information, they had their results — all tested negative — by July 17.
That seemed an especially quick turnaround given recent backlogs being seen in the nation’s testing system.
When Williams’ results became known, the Senate Democratic caucus performed a quick form of contact tracing around the Capitol as the senator had last been there on June 30, when he participated in a press conference after the passing of several police reform bills. Caucus spokeswoman Brittany Crampsie said about 10 people — including a PennLive reporter — were identified as potentially having enough exposure to Mr. Williams that day to warrant a test. They were all advised to do so.
Many senators, especially in the Democratic caucus, have been participating in the session remotely during the pandemic.
“Staff was advised to contact their primary care physician to receive a COVID-19 test,” Ms. Crampsie wrote in an email. “Our insurance fully covers that cost. Since Senators Hughes and Costa were in Harrisburg and not near their doctors, arrangements were made with the public health nurse to receive tests right away.”
That’s where two of the senators got on a different path from most Pennsylvanians.
Mr. Costa and Mr. Hughes went to the state public health center in Harrisburg’s Kline Village shopping center for their tests.
State Health Department spokesman Nate Wardle confirmed last week that the department, as a rule, does not do testing for the general public at this location. But it’s not entirely unprecedented, either.
Mr. Wardle said that since the beginning of the pandemic the department has completed tests when, due to their potential contacts, a positive case for an individual could create a serious public health impact in their community. Since the beginning of the pandemic, he said, state health center nurses have collected approximately 300 COVID-19 specimens.
“Due to the potential community concern we felt it would be prudent to test these individuals to protect public health,” Mr. Wardle said. Nurses on staff at the centers, he added, are trained in both proper PPE usage and how to administer a nasopharyngeal swab, and have these supplies on hand for other tests done at the centers.
Quick turn-around
The quick turn-around for the results was a function of the tests being taken to the state lab in Exton, Pa., where the tests conducted at all state facilities generally go, along with — among others — those done by county and municipal health departments outside of Philadelphia, and tests by nursing homes and other long-term care facilities that are being assisted by the state.
COVID-19 test results at the Exton lab, Mr. Wardle said, typically are available 24-to-48 hours after the specimen is received at the laboratory.
Ms. Crampsie was unable to provide numbers on exactly how many people exposed during the press conference were tested at Kline Village that day, and how many went to other facilities. PennLive’s Capitol Bureau Chief Jan Murphy, who had covered Mr. Williams’ press conference, was among those tested at Kline Village after that option was made available to her; her negative test results also came back on July 16.
Ms. Crampsie said she is not aware of anyone testing positive because of their exposure to Mr. Williams that day.
The only Republican senator tested in the Williams case, meanwhile, was Mr. Corman, the Senate majority leader.
“He was the only member who was on that side of the chamber with Senator Williams during the time in which he may have been contagious,” Corman’s spokeswoman, Jennifer Kocher, told PennLive in an email.
“Senator Corman went to a UPMC testing facility. The facility was asked to expedite the test if possible because we had been told the Lt. Governor [John Fetterman] was not going to be available the following day [Wednesday] and Senator Scarnati [R-Jefferson, the president pro tempore] also was not available to be in Harrisburg, leaving Senator Corman as the only one left who could sign the bills” that had passed the chamber.
“The facility called with the senator’s negative test results late Tuesday evening,” Ms. Kocher said.
The swift results for the state lawmakers, all three of whom hold leadership roles, contrasts with the broader testing picture across Pennsylvania, where it is now not uncommon for people to wait nearly two weeks for COVID results, a time lag that public health professionals agree makes the results moot in terms of infection control.
Fast results are central to the strategy of quickly identifying people who are infected, isolating them, and tracing their contacts to find and isolate others who may be infected.
Mr. Costa in a statement provided to PennLive Wednesday, acknowledged his good situation, and said the same system should be available for everyone. He blamed the federal government’s handling of the pandemic for preventing that from happening.
Other state officials here, in recent weeks, have attributed the lag in test results to national diagnostic companies “being inundated” with tests from the hardest-hit states such as Florida, Texas and California.
It has been true throughout the pandemic that tests performed by public labs or at in-house hospital labs — where processing, prioritizing and tracking all happens within one system — tend to be turned around the quickest. Meanwhile, commercial labs, where the bulk of the tests are being sent, have been slowed by shortages of various supplies. Their contracts with individual health-care providers make it difficult to shift samples to labs with more capacity.
And because the United States has no unified testing infrastructure, the end result is kind of an every man or woman for himself scenario as individuals and entities across the country — from the NBA basketball players in their Florida “bubble,” to university administrators wondering if they can bring their students to campus in the fall to individuals wondering if it’s safe to visit loved ones in a nursing home — all scramble to secure their own access.
Sometimes, however, even a lawmaker has to get in the line. See the case of Sen. Art Haywood, D-Delaware County, who complained on Twitter Tuesday about his long wait for COVID test results.
A staffer for Mr. Williams said Wednesday that he is feeling better and on the road to recovery.