Virginia ramps up coronavirus testing

Test samples are analyzed at a GENETWORx, a private lab in the Richmond area.  [Richmond Times-Dispatch]

While Virginia ranked close the bottom of states in terms of how many COVID-19 tests are being done, state health officials say they have greatly ramped up testing capacity in the past few weeks.

While only 2,000 to 3,000 people were tested a day a few weeks ago, Michel Keatts, northwest region emergency planner with the Virginia Department of Health, says daily testing is now up to 6,500, and the state is on track to reach its goal of 10,000 daily tests.

The state public health lab, Consolidated Laboratory Services, now performs 600 tests a day with a rapid turnaround time, Keatts says. The University of Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth University are doing 1,350 tests a day, and more testing is being done by hospital labs and commercial labs.

Rite Aid pharmacies have established two testing sites in Virginia Beach and Colonial Heights and plan to set up more.

A map on the Health Department’s webpage show where COVID testing is being done. There were just 58 testing sites in April and now there are more than 160, Keatts says. Testing sites close to the Annandale area include the Neighborhood Health at the Merrifield Center, CN Internal Medicine in Alexandria, the Alexandria Health Care Center, and Virginia Medical Alliance in Springfield.

Testing had been hampered by a lack of personal protective equipment, collection swabs, and viral transport media, but those supplies are improving, Keatts says.

The Virginia Health Department updated its testing guidelines. People without symptoms who are prioritized by clinicians can now be tested if needed for medical procedures, he says. In addition, a broader range of people can be tested at community testing clinics.

The Health Department is also conducting “point prevalence testing” of all residents of congregate living facilities, such as nursing homes and correctional facilities.

The Virginia National Guard is helping with that, as well as with community testing efforts targeting underserved populations. The goal is test people at 100 congregate facilities and is now reaching about two a day.

The state Health Department is hiring more people to help with contact tracing and is also reaching out to healthcare providers to educate them about removing obstacles to testing and where to send patients for tests.

According to Keatts, one factor that ranked Virginia low for testing was that the state only counted the number of people tested, rather than the number of tests given.

He says Virginia isn’t reporting the number people who recovered from COVID because it is waiting for guidance from the CDC and wants to use the same standards as other states.

The state lab has started doing testing for antibodies and advanced molecular analysis to monitor different strains of the virus, says Dr. Denise Toney, director of Virginia’s Consolidated Laboratory Services. Those tests can show where virus outbreaks originated.