COLUMBIA, S.C. — On Wednesday, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) addressed the backlog of COVID-19 test results, with many reporting not having received results after seven days.
"These delays are unacceptable," said Dr. Brannon Traxler, DHEC's public health director. "We are taking every step to hold the responsible labs and vendors accountable and get these results back in a timely fashion. We do apologize for all of this trouble this is causing for South Carolinians."
The agency said around 97% of tests are processed at non-DHEC labs, and some are falling behind because of staffing shortages and an increase in tests.
"We’re in this roller coaster, where numbers continue to rise," said Steve Shelton, Incident Commander with Prisma Health. "DHEC is reporting record numbers of 68,000 patients over the past four days."
With increasing numbers of people getting exposed, testing is also on the rise. Traxler said they are currently processing roughly 4 times the number of PCR tests as the same time last year.
DHEC uses 9 labs to process COVID-19 tests. Traxler says the agency is working on ensure labs are returning tests back within 2-3 days.
"We’re exploring all avenues to redirect tests from labs that cannot result within that 48-hour time frame to labs that can do so," Traxler said.
Traxler says the agency whether or not to continue partnerships with labs that can't handle the demand.
In the meantime, DHEC said it recommends people finish what would have been their isolation time or return to work IF it has been more than five days.
"There is emerging data that even after five days, between 30-50% of people will still have enough virus to infect others," said Dr. Divya Ahuja, Infectious Disease Physician at Prisma Health.
Ahuja highly recommends everyone wear a mask, even after their five day isolation.