SC needs higher COVID-19 testing goals and should add saliva tests, lawmakers say
Dissatisfied with South Carolina’s progress battling the coronavirus, state lawmakers issued a set of recommendations Wednesday aimed at increasing the state’s testing capacity, making the state more accountable for ensuring testing is adequate and enhancing its role in securing medical safety supplies for health providers in need.
The recommendations also included making the state Department of Health and Environmental Control responsible for ensuring that labs across the state meet a new testing goal of 10% of South Carolinians each month.
“It’s one thing for us to set benchmarks and appropriate funds … but at the end of the day, there has to be leadership and one person responsible to come back to us and say, ‘We fell short of the goal and this is why,’ ” subcommittee chairman Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, said.
The recommendations, which included guidance on how remaining CARES Act dollars could be spent, were adopted by the Senate’s testing and tracing subcommittee and the full Re-Open South Carolina select committee Wednesday. Senators also voted unanimously to send the recommendations to S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster and Senate President Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee.
The subcommittee is charged with examining the state’s coronavirus testing and contact tracing procedures, seeing what needs to be improved and making suggestions on what money needs to be spent from the pot of federal dollars allocated under the CARES Act to improve those processes.
Lawmakers have said before that they believe that South Carolina is not testing enough of its residents for the coronavirus. During a meeting in late July, they called DHEC’s current efforts “not sufficient,” and said the goal of testing about 2.8% of South Carolinians a month — DHEC’s current goal — did not “serve the public good.”
South Carolina ranks 33rd in the nation for testing, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. In May, the foundation ranked the Palmetto State in 45th place.
The new goal advanced Wednesday, which also includes a directive for DHEC to coordinate one testing event in each county each week, should place South Carolina in a more proactive position to fight the virus, Davis said.
“That 10% figure is what the best medical science indicates is necessary … to have successful mitigation and suppression strategies,” the Beaufort Republican said.
Senators asked that DHEC begin “strategic and proactive demographic testing,” which will be aimed at monitoring communities that are vulnerable to the virus.
The senators also recommended that money from the CARES Act be set aside to meet that goal, though they later chose to allow Senate Finance Committee staff to work with DHEC and labs to set an exact dollar amount. They also asked DHEC to increase the publicity for testing events.
Saliva tests could speed efforts
Another recommendation from senators would have the state allocate money so labs can transition from being reliant on primarily nasopharyngeal testing — which includes inserting a swab through a patient’s nose — to using saliva testing as well.
Saliva testing cuts down on the amount of qualified medical staff needed to man testing sites and allows them to return to hospitals to help with staff shortages, said Dr. Patrick Cawley, the vice president for health affairs at the Medical University of South Carolina and the CEO of MUSC Health. Saliva testing also requires less personal protective equipment.
“Having saliva based tests will add to the testing capacity,” Cawley said in an interview with The State. He testified Wednesday that labs could complete anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 more tests a day if they added this testing method.
But, for labs to add saliva testing, they would need to purchase different equipment, Cawley testified. Each machine costs less than $100,000 though, he added.
“That’s the trick here,” Cawley said. “Most people are going to need new equipment.”
The senators recommended that money from the CARES Act be spent on purchasing those machines.
Other recommendations lawmakers advanced Wednesday include:
▪ Directing the Emergency Management Division to help smaller health care systems order personal protective equipment. Smaller health care systems that have trouble bidding for PPE in the open market would be able to order the equipment through EMD under the recommendation;
▪ Directing EMD to begin procedures so they can work with local military bases to help with coronavirus responses if local officials are overrun and need more lab capacity, logistical support and personnel. Davis said this recommendation was in place “in case things turn South” and called possible military support “a back stop;”
▪ Allocating money to the Emergency Management Division to create a climate-controlled warehouse to hold the state’s personal protective equipment;
▪ Giving money to public colleges and technical schools to expand their testing as students return to classes;
▪ Creating a temporary health information exchange so providers can share COVID-19 data;
▪ Expanding which health care providers can administer coronavirus tests; and
▪ Pushing for automated patient data collection.
This story was originally published August 12, 2020 at 2:32 PM.
