Camden plans drive-thru tests for coronavirus as frustrations rise about SC response
Kershaw County — where the highest numbers of the state’s coronavirus cases have been reported and where worries over the virus and frustrations over the state’s ability to respond are on the rise — will offer drive-thru testing for the virus starting Monday.
A group of local leaders including city officials and state legislators announced the new testing option Thursday, almost two weeks after the state’s first positive test of the virus was announced in Kershaw County. The city also announced a curfew.
While Kershaw County now has 29 of the state’s now 81 reported cases, its coronavirus response has lagged behind some areas that have launched similar initiatives even though they have had far fewer cases. Those include Charleston, Columbia and Greenville.
In a news conference Thursday, state Sen. Vincent Sheheen, D-Kershaw, said the drive-thru testing in Camden is the result of a “grassroots effort of local leadership and our small, local hospital and our nonprofit coming together to do this ourselves.”
Kershaw County does not have a big hospital system like the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston or Prisma Health in Greenville and Columbia, which both have announced drive-thru testing, he added.
On whether the state should have stepped in more aggressively to help, Sheheen said, “We would have liked to have seen the state and the federal government, capable of stepping in more aggressively to provide services, but the reality again is, in this day, nobody likes government until they need it. And so we’re in a ramp up phase on the state level.”
But, Sheheen added, Rick Toomey, the director of the state’s Department of Health and Environmental Control, has been increasingly communicative with the county, whether by visiting multiple times or calling officials on a daily basis.
The announcement caps a week-and-a-half of internal frustration that has at times spilled out in Columbia about the quickness and ability for Kershaw County medical professionals to get their hands on tests and medical supplies necessary to treat and test people who may be carrying the virus.
“We are short of supplies,” Sheheen said Thursday. “I think it’s very important that we are honest and open with the public. We have been short of supplies in Camden. And that is why this effort about Sandhills is so important to help us extend our ability to reach people.”
Representatives of Sandhills Medical Foundation, which will conduct the testing on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, said they anticipate at least 18 appointments a day, based on test kits available, but hope to get enough test kits to open appointments Monday through Friday. Sandhills is getting their tests from LabCorp.
Kershaw County’s frustrations come at a time of rising questions statewide about South Carolina’s preparedness to respond to the coronavirus threat. Concerns have been raised about whether the state will have enough hospital beds and equipment to help people who get sick.
State health officials have generally downplayed those concerns and emphasized that people should not panic.
Still, supplies needed to test people for the coronavirus, as well as protect health care workers, were in increasingly short supply in Camden and some other parts of South Carolina as the COVID-19 virus began to spread in early March.
Legislators say they hope they have solved that problem, for now, after Gov. Henry McMaster signed legislation on Thursday to give the state’s health agency overseeing the coronavirus spread $45 million to buy more supplies. The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control also received some supplies from a federal reserve of medical equipment this week.
But Toomey was unable to tell senators this week whether the $45 million would pay for supplies if they are needed for more than six months. And the supplies DHEC received from the federal reserve are not expected to be all the state is looking for — or even the supplies the state needs, legislators said this week.
“We never know exactly what you get until you open up some of the containers,’’ Toomey said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
State Rep. Mandy Powers Norrell, D-Lancaster, said some states have been frustrated because they are only getting a fraction of what they need from the federal reserve. Oregon, for instance, only received 10% of what it needed, she said.
In a statement Thursday, DHEC said it had sought as much as it could get from the national stockpile. The agency is now taking inventory of the first shipment, 55 pallets that contain “N-95 masks, face shields, surgical masks, gowns and gloves.’’ The agency said it expects other shipments.
The material will be distributed based on county populations and need across South Carolina, DHEC’s statement said.
Sheheen, who has taken an active and public role in helping to get supplies to his district but to also calm down paranoia and misinformation, said one of the biggest needs has been swabs that doctors could use to take samples from suspected coronavirus patients in the Camden area, where people are increasingly worried and frustrated.
The state has enough laboratories to process samples, but that does no good if there are not materials to collect samples, lawmakers said this week.
“If there is an area that I have worried about moving forward, it is clearly, our local hospital needs more supplies, our local doctors’ offices need more supplies, and those supplies are what allows us to have testing,’’ Sheheen said earlier this week.
Toomey agreed this week that, in some parts of the state, “swabs are getting to be in shorter supply as are other pieces of the personal protective equipment.’’
“We’ve gotten reports from different locations that they are running short on the swabs,” Toomey said. “Swabs are very important. They are not Q Tips. They are specific for the test. So that is a critical part of the process.’’
He echoed those comments at a news conference Thursday with Gov. Henry McMaster.
Powers Norrell, who represents a county where cases of coronavirus are tied to the Camden outbreak, said the state needs to consider testing people who are not visibly sick if South Carolina can secure enough supplies.
“The more data we have, the better we’re going to be able to get a hold of this thing, and get a sense of what we need to do about it,” she said.
Powers Norrell said DHEC has said people who don’t show signs of the virus should not be tested. But she said the agency also acknowledges people can have the virus and not show any signs.
“It’s inconsistent,’’ she said.
In a statement late Thursday afternoon, DHEC said the virus can’t be reliably detected between the time a person is exposed and the time they have symptoms. Tests are done by taking samples from a person’s nasal cavity.
“Testing before an individual has symptoms could result in an inaccurate negative test,’’ the department said in an email.
DHEC should have been more clear about what appears to be a lack of certain equipment to perform tests, Powers Norrell said.
She also said DHEC needs to provide more information about where the coronavirus cases are from.
Even though her home county has several cases of the coronavirus that DHEC says are tied to the Camden outbreak, the agency has refused to say if the cases are near the border. Knowing that could help enlighten people in the area, she said.
“It would help folks to understand the gravity we are facing and the importance of taking precautions,’’ she said.
Senate Minority Leader Nikki Setzler, D-Lexington, said Wednesday that he hopes the $45 million package will provide some relief to the dwindling medical supplies. Setzler also said he understands some swabs have been obtained by Camden-area medical facilities.
“They’ll have those funds available to move forward,’’ Setzler said.
Coronavirus testing in Camden
When: Starting Monday, March 23, testing will be available Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with an hour-long break at 1 p.m. each day.
Before you go: Tests are available with an appointment set up through a phone call starting 2 p.m. Thursday, March 19. Call 877-529-4339 to make an appointment.
Where: Kershaw Mental Health Clinic, 2611 Liberty Hill Road, Camden, SC
For more info: Go to www.sandhillsmedical.org
This story was originally published March 19, 2020 at 12:44 PM.
