SC’s coronavirus testing is ‘not sufficient,’ state lawmakers say
South Carolina state lawmakers pushed state health officials to set higher coronavirus testing goals Wednesday, as the number of people diagnosed with the virus in the Palmetto State continued to skyrocket.
Department of Health and Environmental Control officials currently aim to test about 2.8% of the state’s population per month, an increase from the previous goal of 2% per month, but lawmakers said that goal is falling short.
“Two percent is not sufficient,” S.C. Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, said during a meeting of the Senate’s COVID-19 testing and tracking subcommittee. “If that benchmark isn’t sufficient, you haven’t served the public good.”
Davis, the chair of the subcommittee, said the state was completing about 27% of the tests that it needs to help mitigate and suppress the spread of COVID-19.
“We have to approach this with the attitude of what we need to do better,” Davis said.
DHEC officials have surpassed their testing goals every month since they began setting them, Director of Public Health Joan Duwve told the panel of lawmakers. By the end of July, the state is projected to test about 5% of South Carolina’s population for the month.
But the state is facing many testing barriers, including a lack of lab infrastructure to complete tests and a shortage in medical staff available to collect coronavirus test swabs, interim DHEC Director Marshall Taylor said. Other states across the country also are facing the same issues, he added.
Taylor’s comparison was met with some criticism.
“If we were fifth in the nation in tracing and testing and we were doing great, then I wouldn’t be saying this,” S.C. Sen. Vincent Sheheen, D-Kershaw, said. “I don’t want to hear that, ‘Every other state and us are facing these challenges so we’re not going to be able to do what we’re going to do.’”
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.
DHEC officials revealed Wednesday, though, that they hope to increase their testing goal to 10% of the state’s population each month by the end of the year. That would mean they would need to at least double the number of tests completed each month.
“By increasing testing, we’re able to more quickly and accurately identify hot spots, catch outbreaks before they spread and deploy resources where they’re needed,” Duwve said.
Starting in August, DHEC will be coordinating to provide at least one testing opportunity in each county per week, Duwve said. Currently, DHEC monitors about eight testing events every day, and this new initiative will increase that average to 12 events across the state each day.
“We hope this will address the high demand for testing in the state,” Duwve said.
But increasing testing and changing factors will bring new challenges, Duwve said. When schools return for in-person classes, DHEC will no longer be able to use their parking lots to hold testing events, she said. Health officials will have to look elsewhere for venues that can handle the traffic caused by testing events.
With hospitals experiencing record numbers of COVID-19 patients, Duwve said health officials are also concerned about having enough medical staff to collect swabs from people who are getting tested for the coronavirus. Though they have enough staff now, if the number of hospitalized coronavirus patients continues to increase, hospitals will have to withdraw their employees from testing events to care for patients within their own facilities.
DHEC is working to contract with an outside company to get 1,000 people to collect the specimens, which would “go a long way to meet that demand,” Duwve said. She also asked lawmakers to consider lifting restrictions that would stop other medical professionals like dentists from being able to assist at testing events.
State health officials believe they have enough resources, including testing reagent they saw shortages of earlier this year, to meet a higher testing goal. But other health leaders, like Medical University of South Carolina CEO Patrick Cawley, say some labs may face equipment shortages or failures as the demand for testing increases.
In the last ten days, officials at MUSC, one of the largest medical providers on the coast, realized they may face shortages of lab technicians and pipette tips, two things in high demand nationally, Cawley said. He also warned that if machines used in labs to conduct coronavirus tests break, there may not be a local technician who can fix them.
Cawley said these issues are under control now in MUSC labs, but may pop back up in the fall during flu season as more people seek coronavirus tests.
Melanie Matney, the S.C. Hospital Association’s system chief operating officer, called on lawmakers to create a stockpile of lab supplies like pipette tips and testing reagent to prepare for possible shortages in the fall.
Lawmakers urged both MUSC and DHEC officials to tell them what resources they need to reach higher testing goals, so that legislators can allocate money to those initiatives when they return to Columbia in September to pass the budget.
“This is a top priority for us,” Davis said.
