“We have a limitation on testing.”
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz has said that before about the possibility of expanding testing for COVID-19. He said it even more emphatically on Wednesday.
“Even if I had 20,000 test kits, our lab can only a do certain amount per day, and then we have to send out the rest,” Poloncarz said at his daily coronavirus briefing.
The county public health lab can process, at most, about 100 tests a day. The county executive noted current testing supplies is between 350 and 400 test sampling kits and about enough reagent to process 600 samples.
County government is still doing testing, but on a limited basis. The temporary Maple Road drive-thru sampling location was operational again on Wednesday.
2 On Your Side counted 32 cars passing through the facility. Test subjects chosen fall into a small handful of prioritized categories: people living in nursing or group homes, law enforcement and criminal justice employees and health-care workers.
Matthew Sciara is a health-care worker and a pharmacist, and he still cannot get a test.
The Williamsville man developed a fever and called his doctor’s office. After answering a series of questions over the phone, he says his physician diagnosed him as “presumed positive” for COVID-19.
But he would like to return to work, and he cannot until he is tested.
“I do on the one hand want to make sure the tests being limited are there for the most likely cases, more as severe than my own,” Sciara said, “but it would be nice to know what additional precautions as well as what additional risks I could be putting on my patients at and my family as well.”
There is other testing happening in Western New York.
Kaleida’s hospitals are doing testing, but only for its staff and critical patients. That’s also true at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, which ramped up its in-house testing.
Roswell President Dr. Candace Johnson tells 2 On-Your-Side, testing is power.
“It is really so critical because if you know a patient is negative the (personal protective equipment) you need is not as extensive. Knowing when someone is positive or negative is really key,” says Dr. Johnson.
Poloncarz did not offer hope that expended coronavirus testing was coming to Erie County anytime soon Wednesday.
“We are keeping up with what we can do and we have the ability to do certain tests, but there is no ability to do drive-up tests for everybody who wants it,” he said.
