LA County Gives Up, Shifts Away from Containing Virus
Los Angeles County health officials are advising doctors to avoid testing patients for the coronavirus unless a positive test result would change the course of treatment.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health sent guidance to doctors on Thursday after it became clear that the influx of patients and shortage of tests could make it difficult to track exactly how many people had the virus, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Doctors were advised to only test symptomatic patients when “a diagnostic result will change clinical management or inform public health response.”
This corresponded with the department’s shift “from a strategy of case containment to slowing disease transmission and averting excess morbidity and mortality.”
The shortage of medical supplies makes it hard for doctors to conduct the COVID-19 tests even if they have them on hand.
Many hospitals nationwide currently lack the protective gear — like N-95 masks — needed to collect samples from patients, according to ABC News.
“If someone sneezes on the staff performing the test, we will be exposed,” New Jersey Dr. Anjali Viswanathan said.
A Los Angeles County health care provider, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Los Angeles Times that doctors are interpreting the new instructions to mean only patients who will be hospitalized or who contracted the virus in a unique way should be tested.
Patients who have COVID-19 symptoms but are healthy enough to self-quarantine at home will not be tested and may never show up on official records as testing positive for the virus.
Instead, the Department of Public Health will focus on detecting and preventing outbreaks by testing in settings like hospitals and nursing homes.
Dr. Christina Ghaly, the director for the Los Angeles Department of Health Services, said the department “is mobilizing all of its resources to fight the oncoming wave of COVID-19 cases expected in the coming weeks.”
“We are ramping up hospital capacity and taking extraordinary measures to increase supplies,” she told the Times.
Los Angeles is not the only city shifting its focus away from testing for COVID-19.
The New York City Department of Health has also directed its health care facilities to stop testing non-hospitalized patients for the coronavirus, CNN reported.
“At this point in the pandemic, demand for unnecessary testing is contributing to the rapidly diminishing supply of [personal protective equipment] and leading to a decreasing supply of swabs and viral transport media used to collect diagnostic specimens for COVID-19 testing,” the department said in a statement.
“Testing may play a more significant role after the pandemic has peaked.”
Medical experts, like CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta, have advised medical professionals that they can still treat coronavirus symptoms without a positive test result.
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