Bipartisan call for more coronavirus test swabs in Washington

Snoqualmie Valley Hospital on Tuesday restarted testing for coronavirus.

Three weeks ago, administrators had to stop because they quickly ran out of supplies.

"It was incredibly tough, there were several weeks where there was no movement whatsoever and then in the last couple of weeks, we've started getting small supplies, a little bit more, and a little bit more and we've been slowly accumulating," said Dr. Kim Witkop, the hospital's interim CEO.

The hospital now has almost 800 test kits, but they're saved for people with active COVID-like symptoms.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash) said the scarcity of test swabs means people at high risk, like those in nursing homes, can't get tests, nor can essential workers.

Jayapal said widespread testing is needed to get people who are healthy back to work.

"We really have to fear a resurgence of the virus if we are not doing widespread testing and contact tracing for everybody," Jayapal said.

Jayapal spearheaded a letter signed by every member of the state's U.S. House delegation, Democrats and Republicans, requesting more COVID kits for rural Washington counties where health systems are strained, and for King County, which the federal government promised four thousand kits.

"They committed to sending those test kits and we did not get them as promised," Jayapal said.

Dr. Keith Jerome heads the virology lab at the University of Washington and says his team is now able to turn around COVID tests in just six hours.

They're processing a couple thousand tests a day, but could handle a couple thousand more.

"We could crank it up, we would love nothing more than to be challenged, frankly, bring them on we'll figure out ways to get it done, we love to be busy because people need to know where they stand with this infection," Jerome said.

Just this week, Jerome said UW Medicine secured a shipment of 80,000 test kits from China and is distributing them in the Puget Sound region.

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