COVID-19 testing capacity strained as localities struggle with vaccine staffing

COVID-19 testing capacity strained as localities struggle with Local health departments struggling to find enough staff to carry out a massive vaccination campaign are finding that another key weapon against the coronavirus is being threatened: testing capacity. Peter Sullivan TheHill

Local health departments struggling to find enough staff to carry out a massive vaccination campaign are finding that another key weapon against the coronavirus is being threatened: testing capacity.

Health officials across the country are facing tough decisions on whether to close testing sites or cut back on hours because they don’t have enough funding or staff to administer both vaccinations and testing.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said he had spoken with health officials in Stamford, Conn., who “don’t have enough money right now to be able to both keep up their testing and distribute vaccine, so they're going to have to make a choice.”

That is absolutely devastating,” he said on a call hosted by Coronavirus War Room, a Democratic group.

“I’m hearing that every place in the country,” Nicole Lurie, a former assistant secretary of Health and Human Services and an adviser to President-elect Joe Biden's team, said on a call with reporters. “There's just not enough personnel, enough bandwidth [to do both].”

For example, Los Angeles closed its large testing site at Dodger Stadium, converting it instead into a vaccination site. The city acknowledged the move would “temporarily reduce testing capacity in L.A. County,” but on the other hand would “more than triple the number of daily vaccines available to be dispersed to Angelenos.”

Collier County, Florida, closed most of its testing sites to make way for vaccine distribution, the local NBC affiliate reported. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has directed the state to find testing sites that can be shifted to vaccination locations. ...