SEATTLE - Health experts with the state of Washington say over the next few weeks they want to be testing seven times more people they are today for COVID-19.
But it all depends on access to test kits.
The critical factor for increasing testing requires the state to be able acquire the supplies they need for the kits. But health experts say there is a supply shortage on all the materials that are used in COVID-19 test kits.
In the meantime, the state continues to test between 2,500 and 4,500 people daily.
Some local hospitals tell KOMO News they have been able to get a good number of test kits, which has allowed them to relax testing guidelines to test anyone with symptoms.
As of Thursday afternoon the state said it’s been able to get some orders in for supplies that include 30,000 viral media kits and 350,000 nasal swabs.
And now quality tests are being done on 100,000 swabs that just arrived at the state’s supply warehouse that will be used to make test kits.
“If we can get that capacity to 30,000 in the next couple weeks, hopefully we won’t have that many people developing symptoms, but that should give us at least a start to test people with symptoms,” said Dr. Charissa Fortinos, deputy chief medical officer at the Washington State Healthcare Authority.
The state is currently drafting new testing guidelines that could be announced as early as Friday.
The state’s goal is test everyone with symptoms.
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