MACON, Ga. — North Central Health District epidemiologist Amber Erickson says commercial tests for COVID-19 are now available
"Any physician can now order tests through Labcorp and Quest Diagnostics," said Erickson. "They do not have to go through (the Department of) Public Health to get that approval. So anyone in Georgia that is low-risk, no travel history, no contact to a confirmed case and mild illness we recommend commercial testing be done."
Government tests from the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) are also available, but only to patients who meet certain criteria.
"We are only prioritizing testing for high risk patients because our testing capability is limited at the state public health lab," said Erickson. "So the individuals who can get this testing done are those that are direct contacts to a case, those that have travel history and are symptomatic and those that are hospitalized with severe illness of unknown etiology, meaning they have negative flu tests, they have negative respiratory panels, and we're just ruling out COVID-19."
However, North Central Health District spokesman Michael Hokanson would not answer us when we asked how many people have been tested by the DPH here in Central Georgia, citing a state policy not to release those numbers.
The policy reads as follows:
"DPH will not provide information about the number of patients being tested for coronavirus, but will release limited information about confirmed cases of coronavirus in Georgia. This is a fluid situation where numbers will change and may not reflect the level of risk to the general public, which at this time remains low."
Hokanson also didn't know how many private tests were available, saying "we do not have specific information on the capacity of capabilities of private labs. They do have an agreement with the state office to notify DPH should a positive test result occur. Physicians can use private labs at their discretion."
He wouldn't tell us the size of the backlog of tests at the state lab either, or how many samples are coming to the lab each day, citing that state policy.
Governor Brian Kemp said over the weekend the state lab has the capacity to process 100 tests per day, but he hopes to increase that to 200 per day soon.
Erickson, the epidemiologist, said commercial lab tests get results in two to three days. She says state DPH tests get results in one to two days.
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