Covid-19 testing experiences

[Janet H]

I have been interested to see news reports of drive through testing. To date testing is very limited in my area and folks cannot easily be tested. Today the local health officer said this:

“The really unfortunate thing that we heard last night; so right now we have about a hundred and sixty tests left for the for the county as a whole, and we contacted the state for a replacement tests, and they told us that until we get positive tests, we can’t get test kits, which is about as insane as it sounds. And so, unfortunately, we’ve had to dramatically cut back on testing. So we are now only testing hospitalized patients. Outpatient, we are only testing first responders, hospital workers and people in long-term care facilities. We continue to have critical shortages of personal protective equipment. One of our great challenges is, right now, those are also not being filled by the state. We have received no fills on any of the orders we sent to the state. And again, we are being told that we can’t have any orders filled until we get positive tests, and we can’t get tests to find out if we have any one positive.”

Has anyone here been tested? How reliable do you think tests are?

 

[rodi]

We were unable to get our son tested for covid. They tested him for flu and strep. Dr said he didn't meet the criteria (7th day of fever the 2nd time we were at the doctors after telemed told us to go in.) At that time (last Wednesday) the criteria was either out of country within 14 days OR direct contact with a tested/confirmed covid person.

They broadened testing to people who had all the symptoms but not the known contact/travel. Cases increased from 28 to 60 between Friday and today (Tuesday).

There is a drive through testing at a local medical center... but you have to be referred to it. Need a doctors note or telemed referral.

 

[NW-Bound]

... At that time (last Wednesday) the criteria was either out of country within 14 days OR direct contact with a tested/confirmed covid person...

I don't know of anyone sick and needing a test, in order to judge how hard it is to get tested.

Arizona has 1769 cases at this point. Back when the count got above 100, health officials acknowledged that community spread had been here when they were no longer able to do contact tracing.

 

[youbet]

There is a drive through testing at a local medical center... but you have to be referred to it. Need a doctors note or telemed referral.

This is a good thing.

We now have a number of drive-through test sites in Illinois. They have a max number of tests daily. You need to be 60, be high risk or have a referral. An interview with a test site worker on PBS gave me the impression they don't require any documentation (beyond proof of age if that's your justification) and just take your word for it if you're claiming exposure or high risk status. The test site worker expressed a concern that many folks were there just because they wanted to be tested and were likely saying whatever they needed to say to proceed.

It's Illinois.........

 

[Gumby]

There is a drive through testing at a local medical center... but you have to be referred to it. Need a doctors note or telemed referral.

That's exactly how they do it here in my town. There is a police cruiser stationed at the entrance to enforce the rule. So far, we are up to 56 cases here in my town of about 50k people. Many in the local nursing home.

 

[Hamlet]

I’m in Minnesota. The only person I know who has been tested is a doctor. They are only testing health care workers and people sick enough to need hospitalization at this point. My friend had symptoms that could have been Covid ( or just the flu )- he had a teleconference with his doctor and she just said to stay home unless he was having trouble breathing. So we won’t know if he had it until they start using the antibody test down the road.

We are pretty much flying blind here. All we can do is watch the number of people hospitalized and hope that it stops rising before we run out of ICU beds.

We are lucky though. The numbers here are still manageable. A lot of states are in a much more frightening place.

 

[youbet]

I’m in Minnesota. The only person I know who has been tested is a doctor. They are only testing health care workers and people sick enough to need hospitalization at this point. My friend had symptoms that could have been Covid ( or just the flu )- he had a teleconference with his doctor and she just said to stay home unless he was having trouble breathing. So we won’t know if he had it until they start using the antibody test down the road.

We are pretty much flying blind here. All we can do is watch the number of people hospitalized and hope that it stops rising before we run out of ICU beds.

We are lucky though. The numbers here are still manageable. A lot of states are in a much more frightening place.

Would your friend have received different instructions had he been tested and the test was positive? If the test was negative?

I understand the convenience and peace of mind from knowing one's COVID-19 status, especially if typical symptoms exist. OTOH, it doesn't seem to be clear as to how actionable steps would be different between a person tested and a person not tested, everything else being the same.

Don't misunderstand, I'll like it better when COVID-19 testing is readily available and can be done daily at home, similar to blood sugar testing. But in the meantime, I'm just trying to conduct myself as though I'd test positive but asymtomatic. And if I develop symptoms, I'll contact my doc.

 

[pacergal]

No testing here unless you are referred by a doctor or in the hospital.

 

[REWahoo]

Requirements for a test changed in San Antonio yesterday:

People with COVID-19 symptoms in San Antonio will no longer need a physician’s referral to get tested for the virus, according to a news release from the city of San Antonio

The Metropolitan Health District amended the criteria to make testing more accessible. However, testing is still reserved for those with symptoms.

"San Antonio has received more testing supplies. With more tests available, we are able to break down barriers that people may face to getting tests, such as access to health care providers or insurance," said Metro Health Director Dawn Emerick.

Now, if the city's online COVID-19 self-screening tool indicates that a resident should get tested, they can book an appointment to receive a test.

https://www.mysanantonio.com/corona...o-officials-open-up-criteria-for-15178017.php

I predict it will be difficult to get an appointment less than a week out.

 

[Hamlet]

Would your friend have received different instructions had he been tested and the test was positive? If the test was negative?

I understand the convenience and peace of mind from knowing one's COVID-19 status, especially if typical symptoms exist. OTOH, it doesn't seem to be clear as to how actionable steps would be different between a person tested and a person not tested, everything else being the same.

Don't misunderstand, I'll like it better when COVID-19 testing is readily available and can be done daily at home, similar to blood sugar testing. But in the meantime, I'm just trying to conduct myself as though I'd test positive but asymtomatic. And if I develop symptoms, I'll contact my doc.

Well, one thing that would be different is that if he knew he had it and got better, he could likely stop worrying about getting it again. If we knew who had recovered from it, those people wouldn’t need to social distance anymore.

Also, I think people would have more compliance with quarantining if they knew they had it rather than just the regular flu.

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

I have been tracking the testing day by day. There has been continual improvement in the # tests per day, and yesterday I saw a big jump (and reduction in pending results). Here's a link to the spreadsheet (which has a link to the source data).

Also interesting is that while the number of new cases per day is increasing, we are seeing a lower second derivative. For instance, I calculate a 5 day rolling average value of days to double (i.e. how many days it takes to double the new cases using a 5 day simple moving average), and that value has gone from 1.0 on 3/21 to 5.5 today. Finally, for the first time since 3/16 today's data has a decrease in the to-date % positive found in testing...so perhaps more of the "most likely" positives have been found (tests are becoming easier to obtain and as a result we see more negative cases).

This data is national, there are also state by state data available which would be better for hot spot analysis (and for which I can only hope/assume that people a lot better at this than I am are examining).

Here's a link to my spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12cqet2T9DWT3nUkTu_bCffjPhbrqLz1sY29tNL5X0RU/edit?usp=sharing

I will be trying to update this daily. If it isn't it is because:
a) I was busy and will get to it
b) The situation is much better
c) I'm a victim of COVID19 or something else.

 

[garyt]

Would your friend have received different instructions had he been tested and the test was positive? If the test was negative?

I understand the convenience and peace of mind from knowing one's COVID-19 status, especially if typical symptoms exist. OTOH, it doesn't seem to be clear as to how actionable steps would be different between a person tested and a person not tested, everything else being the same.

Don't misunderstand, I'll like it better when COVID-19 testing is readily available and can be done daily at home, similar to blood sugar testing. But in the meantime, I'm just trying to conduct myself as though I'd test positive but asymtomatic. And if I develop symptoms, I'll contact my doc.

It would certainly bring peace of mind to everyone he's come in contact with if he tests negative.

 

[6miths]

The US is behind most countries in terms of testing for obvious reasons. IMHO, the main benefit to testing is someone who is positive will be quarantined more stringently (and if a healthcare worker, taken off service) and also know that if they start to get significant respiratory problems that they need to get to a hospital (if they chose). This would not be the case for any other condition except the flu which presumably they would have already be tested for. There are almost certainly tens of thousands of people wandering around who are positive who would not be out if they knew of their status. This is similar to the early days of HIV. A negative test is of limited value both because of false negatives and because one can become infected shortly after having a negative test and thus be falsely reassured.

Having the antibody test widely available will be very beneficial.

 

[Freedom56]

The governor of California did his daily gave a status update today. He mentioned that they are working to clear up the testing bottleneck caused by Qwest Diagnostics. The pending results are now down to 13,900 from 60,000 and the results of those tests pending tests will be reported over the next few days. He is using more governmental institutions to perform testing to improve the turn-around. He did mention that Standford University has developed a blood serum test that will be rolled out shortly. It should get FDA approval soon. This will be key to determining who has antibodies and who can return to work or their normal lives.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/04...nford-research-reveals-if-youve-been-exposed/

 

[cranberryjoe]

I was sick with it a few weeks ago. My doctor via phone agreed I matched the symptoms and thought it was likely covid-19, but despite being over 60 my symptoms weren't severe enough to get a test. At the time I was glad I didn't need to be tested. I was too sick to drive myself, so I would have had to endanger someone else to drive me and potentially wait in line hours for the test. I stayed home and soldiered through some fevers and fatigue, and eventually recovered without having to call 911.

I'm hoping there will be an antibody test I can take in a few months to confirm whether I actually had it. Maybe by then they'll know more about how much immunity you get.

 

[W2R]

I was sick with it a few weeks ago. My doctor via phone agreed I matched the symptoms and thought it was likely covid-19, but despite being over 60 my symptoms weren't severe enough to get a test. At the time I was glad I didn't need to be tested. I was too sick to drive myself, so I would have had to endanger someone else to drive me and potentially wait in line hours for the test. I stayed home and soldiered through some fevers and fatigue, and eventually recovered without having to call 911.

I'm hoping there will be an antibody test I can take in a few months to confirm whether I actually had it. Maybe by then they'll know more about how much immunity you get.

So glad that you are OK, cranberryjoe! Pretty scary I would imagine.

 

[cranberryjoe]

So glad that you are OK, cranberryjoe! Pretty scary I would imagine.

Thank you. It was indeed scary, and I was aware it could quickly change into the end game. I was intently focused on what my lungs felt like, making certain to not over-exert myself in case it triggered breathing problems. Never any issues breathing, fortunately.