More coronavirus testing, but results are delayed


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."