Covid Vaccine Mandates Are Causing Surge In Test Demand

Fortunately, the US is better positioned to test and process results than it was a year ago, though demand may strain supply in the first few weeks. 

There are more kinds of tests available now and at-home tests are becoming more readily available. JL 

Sharon Terlep and Brianna Abbott report in the Wall Street Journal:

A repeat of last summer’s crippling delays in Covid-19 test results appears unlikely, medical professionals say, given that U.S. labs expanded operations last year and more types of tests are available. Makers of over-the-counter Covid-19 tests are continuing to boost production, while laboratories and companies are ramping up operations that some had scaled back after the virus largely retreated earlier this year. As of Sept. 6, laboratories in the U.S. were processing more than 1.2 million daily Covid-19 tests. “Our inquiries jumped 200% overnight, and it’s only going up."

America’s Covid-testing infrastructure, from drugstores to diagnostics manufacturers, is bracing for a surge in demand following the Biden administration’s order that most large U.S. companies mandate their workers get vaccinated or be screened weekly for the virus.

Makers of over-the-counter Covid-19 tests are continuing to boost production, while laboratories and companies are ramping up operations that some had scaled back after the virus largely retreated earlier this year.

CVS Health Corp. CVS 0.86% and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. WBA -0.55% have begun limiting the number of at-home tests customers can buy online or in stores as they work with test suppliers to ensure they are able to meet demand.

Meanwhile, employers already are having a tougher time securing bulk tests to screen employees as retail pharmacies and other testing providers ration supplies, according to consulting group Mercer LLC.

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A repeat of last summer’s crippling delays in Covid-19 test results appears unlikely, laboratories and medical professionals say, given that U.S. labs expanded operations last year and more types of tests are available. As Covid-19 peaked in many states last summer and fall, many people in coronavirus hot spots waited weeks for results, complicating efforts to curb the pandemic.

As of Sept. 6, laboratories in the U.S. were processing more than 1.2 million daily Covid-19 tests that hunt for the virus’s genetic material, federal data show. At the height of demand last fall and winter, labs processed more than 2 million such tests a day after sprinting to order more machines and supplies to expand operations amid a fractured supply chain. The most common type of Covid-19 laboratory test performed is done using a technique called a polymerase chain reaction, or PCR.

Many laboratories have excess testing capacity. Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings, LH -1.16% a major diagnostics company, can run about 300,000 Covid-19 tests a day and is currently using less than half of that capacity, said Adam Schechter, LabCorp’s president and chief executive. Capacity can be enhanced at laboratories even further if screening samples are pooled together in places where transmission is relatively low.

“If all the unvaccinated individuals decided to opt for weekly testing, it might be a stretch. And if that all comes in on Mondays, that too would be a touch more difficult from a load-balancing standpoint,” said Alex Greninger, assistant director of the clinical virology laboratory at the University of Washington Medical Center. “But I’d anticipate more people getting vaccinated, so I think we will be OK.”

Some parts of the country are experiencing longer waits or more difficulty finding tests, mostly because of reduced infrastructure, such as the closing of sample-collection sites and easing workers off shifts. States and laboratories have started to revamp those sites in recent weeks.

In California, where cases remain low relative to other parts of the country, the average laboratory turnaround time on a Covid-19 test has doubled since June, to 1.4 days, according to the California Department of Health, which says tests are most effective when results are available within two days.

A number of employers have had to find alternative means to test workers in recent weeks because they haven’t been able to secure rapid tests in bulk as demand increases, said Mercer consultant Sandy Goldstein, a leader of the firm’s Covid-related efforts. Some companies have shifted to PCR or over-the-counter tests. “We have clinical vendors who can’t fill current orders with current clients,” Ms. Goldstein said.

CVS and Walgreens both have large-scale testing programs for employers. A Walgreens spokeswoman said the company is working with test manufacturers to keep up with demand for workplace testing and that the company is filling bulk orders of tests “based on supply and availability.” CVS declined to comment on availability of testing for employers.

For rapid antigen tests, which hunt for pieces of virus protein and give results in about 15 minutes, demand already has started to outstrip the available supply of the tests themselves recently. Abbott Laboratories, ABT -1.69% a key supplier of such tests, scaled down its operations after demand plummeted in the summer, and the company is currently working on scaling its manufacturing back up and hiring additional employees.

“We do not have enough capacity and supply of rapid antigen tests to meet the onslaught of demand,” said Mara Aspinall, co-founder of the Biomedical Diagnostics program at Arizona State University who publishes a weekly newsletter on Covid-19 testing and capacity.

Ms. Aspinall and her team estimate that about 800,000 rapid antigen tests are conducted a day and are uncounted, since many antigen tests don’t have an automatic reporting system. Ms. Aspinall is also a board member of Orasure Technologies Inc., OSUR -7.81% which recently received Food and Drug Administration emergency authorization to sell its at-home Covid-19 antigen tests.

Orasure, along with Becton, Dickinson and Co. and Access Bio Inc., 950130 -0.89% all received emergency authorization for their over-the-counter antigen tests in recent months and are starting to contribute to the available supply. Some diagnostics and public health experts say that the clearance of more rapid antigen tests by the FDA could also help improve capacity as manufacturers ramp up.

“Our inquiries jumped 200% overnight, and it’s only going up,” said Leo Friedman, CEO and founder of iPromo LLC, a company that sources merchandise, including antigen tests and personal protective equipment. “You’re not solving this with the manufacturers you have now.”