Coronavirus Testing Ramps Up in U.S.

A 16-year veteran of nursing, Homan fluttered between the vehicles like a pollinating bee, swabbing the nostrils of drivers, some of whom arrived wearing masks. Homan placed the swabs in sealed containers, passing them on to another similarly garbed nurse. Franciscan requires a physician's order for tests and preregistration.

Homan, a reassuringly calm presence, gave test-takers Centers for Disease Control and Prevention information about self-quarantining and at-home care. She said the initial testing turnaround was three days, but has increased to from five to seven days as the spike in testing overwhelms laboratories across the United States.

"We've seen patients of all ages and genders with a full range of symptoms — from mild sniffles to severe hacking coughs,” she said. Tests began this week at Franciscan Health's Michigan City, Indiana, hospital as well. “Most people have been incredibly friendly and polite,” she said. “They've listened seriously to what we have to say and seem very grateful.”

During a rare lull, the nurses huddled in a trailer beneath a tent.

Franciscan began outpatient coronavirus testing on Monday, said Travis Thatcher-Curtis, 42, the hospital's director of nursing operations. The tests take less than five minutes to administer, he said. Franciscan's lab gathers the samples and ships them for analysis to the Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings, a Burlington, North Carolina-based clinical lab. He said the crowds have risen daily, from 15 patients on opening day to nearly 75 on Wednesday.

Illinois: 422 infections

Neighboring Illinois, which has 12.65 million people — nearly twice the Indiana population — has been hit harder. While the state's Department of Public Health reported four coronavirus deaths as of Wednesday, it also has logged 422 diagnosed cases since the first such case was announced on Jan. 24, three days after the first U.S. case in Washington state was discovered. Altogether, 3,151 Illinoisans have been tested.

Some hospitals have devised their own tests and are gathering samples to process in-house. NorthShore University Health System in Chicago's northern suburbs is conducting testing at its five hospitals.

NorthShore created its test in January and began testing patients during the second week of March, said Karen Kaul, M.D., who chairs its pathology and laboratory services. The system was testing up to 400 patients daily, but no longer announces daily counts. Instead it reports the information (and confirmed cases) to the Illinois Department of Public Health, which forwards them to the CDC.

More tests, longer waits

"Our goal has been to turn around the test results within 24 hours for inpatients,” Kaul said, “and so far we have been able to meet that, but may have to adjust as volumes increase."

Now the hospital is testing only NorthShore inpatients and outpatients who are symptomatic and referred by a doctor. Following state health department guidance, the system is testing people who have fever or symptoms of lower respiratory tract illness or have been in regions hit by coronavirus.

Franciscan Health Crown Point Nurse Tambi Kieta (left in white) accepts a COVID-19 test sample from fellow nurse Jennifer Homan (right, in yellow), manager of Trauma Services there.

Mark Taylor

Not everyone is lucky enough to live in areas with testing. Moving east to Erie, Pennsylvania, financial analyst Sarah Youngblood, 25, can't get tested fast enough. Youngblood and her partner are hosting a 16-year-old German exchange student. Two weeks ago, the teen returned from a vacation to her home in Hamburg, Germany, with a cough.

Since Sunday, Youngblood has suffered a dry cough, low-grade fever and labored breathing — all symptoms of COVID-19. She reached out to her physician. He referred her to state health department telephone staffers, who interviewed her.

The bad news: because of the shortage of tests, she would have to wait. Youngblood finally learned she could take the nasal swab test Friday. Meantime, she, her partner and the student are self-quarantining. “I'm trying to stay calm and stress free and do all the healthy things, but it's a little scary,” she said.

High temperature, high anxiety

In the Southwest, waiting for COVID-19 test results has triggered anxiety for Kimberly Shay, an Albuquerque, New Mexico, nurse at an outpatient surgery center. In recent weeks Shay, an otherwise fit and healthy 45-year-old, started taking her temperature daily, and felt fine until last Saturday .

"My temperature rose to 100 degrees. I got the chills and was coughing and called the state health department,” Shay said. “They screened me on the phone after a 30-minute wait and asked if I'd traveled anywhere, which I had not. They weren't going to test me, but then I told them I was a nurse — who worked with seniors."

Shay went to a drive-through site for the nasopharyngeal test at Loveless Medical Center. “The nose swab was uncomfortable, but not awful,” Shay, who is self-quarantining, said. “They go farther back in your nose than you'd think they could."

She was told that, normally, test results could come back in 12 to 24 hours but was advised to expect a 72-hour wait because that site had gathered 800 specimens that day. She said that nearly 20 medical staffers were processing patients over the 12-hour day at a rate of four every five minutes.

As of Thursday, Shay had not received the results from her test five days earlier. Her surgery center has closed down pending her test results.

“I wonder whether I was infectious last week,” she said. “I'm not worried I'll die from this, but I'm worried about any human I've come in contact with in the last week."