By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Lena H. Sun and Laurie McGinley. Washington Post
March 21, 2020 at 6:29 p.m. EDT
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Health officials in New York, California and other hard-hit parts of the country are restricting coronavirus testing to health care workers and the severely ill, saying the battle to contain the virus is lost and the country is moving into a new phase of the pandemic response.
As cases spike sharply in those places, they are bracing for an onslaught and directing scarce resources where they are needed most to save people’s lives. Instead of encouraging broad testing of the public, they’re focused on conserving masks, ventilators and intensive care beds — and on getting still-limited tests to health-care workers and the most vulnerable. The shift is further evidence that rising levels of infection and illness have begun to overwhelm the health care system.
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A similar message was hammered Saturday by members of the White House coronavirus task force, who said it was urgent to conserve scarce supplies and offered guidelines about who should get tested. Top priority, they said, should go to those who are hospitalized, along with health-care workers, symptomatic residents of long-term care facilities and people over 65 — especially those with heart and lung disease, which place them at higher risk.
“Not every single person in the U.S. needs to get tested,” said Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “When you go in and get tested, you are consuming personal protective equipment, masks and gowns — those are high priority for the health care workers who are taking care of people who have coronavirus disease.”
Health officials are now struggling with a complicated and shifting message. More people can get tested as drive-through sites open and more tests are finally available. Nevertheless, those with mild symptoms should stay home and isolate. And everyone should practice social distancing to preserve the health care system’s finite resources.
To convey those points clearly, many officials are speaking in increasingly blunt terms, saying that wide testing could jeopardize the lives of health care workers and the U.S. response by burning through precious supplies as a tidal wave of sick people descend on the system.AD
“In a universe where masks and gowns are starting to become scarce, every time we test someone who doesn’t need one, we’re taking that mask and gown away from someone in the intensive care unit,” said Demetre Daskalakis, deputy commissioner for the Division of Disease Control of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
The tactical and messaging shifts come after weeks of efforts to expand access to testing after the federal government’s botched rollout, which hampered states’ ability to know whether the virus was already circulating and to take steps to get ahead of it.
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Millions more tests are now available. And the Food & Drug Administration on Friday approved the first coronavirus test that can deliver results in 45 minutes. The turnaround time is far faster than for current tests, which are typically sent to centralized labs and can take days to return results.AD
The FDA granted “emergency use authorization” to Cepheid, a California company that makes a rapid molecular test, for use in “patient care settings,” but the company and the FDA said initially it will be used in hospitals, emergency rooms and urgent care centers.
The test will “help alleviate the pressure” on health-care facilities by helping doctors find out quickly whether a patient has the disease and select the appropriate treatment, David Persing, Cepheid’s chief medical and technology officer, said in an interview.
Despite those developments, however, many health officials remain concerned that testing sites will be inundated and that the president’s previous assertions that anyone who wanted a test “could have one” will lead many with mild cases to squander finite resources.
“I’m just scared there’s going to be mass confusion when people find out there is a testing site, are worried about their covid status, and they’re going to mob the testing site,” said Michael Fraser, executive director of the association that represents state health directors. “It’s confusing to people to hear that testing is being made available in a much more convenient way, and they think, ‘Hey, this is great, let’s get tested.’ ”
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