Governor’s Working Group to expand COVID-19 testing to meet level needs
April 27 - May 3, 2020
By Daily Record Staff
Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Tuesday (April 21) announced the creation of the state’s COVID-19 Testing Working Group to make recommendations to expand the capacity and performance of coronavirus testing in Arkansas just as a new report was released highlighting that only one-third (34%) of U.S.-based physicians believe the status of such testing meets the levels needed.
“Arkansas’s ability to conduct adequate diagnostic and surveillance testing will affect the state’s public-health strategy and economic-recovery efforts after Arkansas reaches its peak number of COVID-19 cases,” Hutchinson said at his daily press briefing. “As we prepare to shift Arkansas’s economy out of low gear, it is important for us to have more comprehensive information about the spread of COVID-19 in the state.”
The working group will include Health Secretary Dr. Nathaniel Smith and other senior representatives of his department, along with key officials from University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), Baptist Health of Arkansas, and Arkansas Children’s. These leaders will examine the state’s supply of testing equipment and make recommendations to maintain adequate testing capabilities and conduct surveillance testing across the state.
At the same time, New York-based Sermo, one of the nation’s leading healthcare data collection firm, released its latest COVID-19 Real Time Barometer that asked 5,500 physicians to forecast when the U.S. can begin easing safer at home restrictions. Nearly all those healthcare policymakers and professionals said the availability and timing of reliable COVID-19 testing has been heralded as one of the key determinants.
According to Sermo’s latest survey on April 15, turnaround time for test results in the U.S. continues to be a barrier in the fight against COVID-19. To date, only 30% of U.S. physicians reported they were able to get test results back within a day compared to 60% in Europe. That is slightly better than the March 25 survey when only 15% of U.S. physicians reported they can get COVID-19 test results back within a day compared to 51% in Europe. Some progress has been made to date but is still not at the level needed to allow physicians and patients to take swift action, the report said.
“The availability of COVID-19 testing is one of the critical factors that will help determine what the future looks like when it comes to opening the country, and these insights from our physicians are important data points to helping make this determination,” said Sermo CEO Peter Kirk.