PCR testing | SA Health - High positivity rate making batch testing much harder
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Why pcr test takes long time
“Behind every COVID test sample is a person worried about their results” - (16 Videos)
An anonymous healthcare worker has provided a harrowing account of what is happening behind the scenes on the frontline of Australia's surging Covid cases amid huge testing delays and bungles. A lengthy and in-depth post has gone viral after being shared on Reddit's Coronavirus Down Under message board.
The insider at a pathology unit at a hospital detailed why it is taking so long to process PCR tests for Covid and lifted the veil on how torturous it is for health care workers at the moment. The account was backed up by several other people who claimed to be healthcare professionals, as well as physician and health commentator Dr Norman Swan who tweeted that a source in the industry verified the account. With negative tests mandated for interstate travel, the testing systems in both public and private healthcare facilities just weren't designed to cope with such high demand.
The healthcare worker, believed to be in NSW, says testing clinics were relying on batch testing which lumps a large number of tests together and only separates them out if there is a positive.
The method was working efficiently but now due to the higher percentage of positive results, it's getting much harder keep up. My former partner ran PCR tests in a lab, as a microbiologist and infectious disease doctor. The details in the reddit thread is exactly as she explained to me.
She did not post it. I watched her work tirelessly throughout the pandemic, selflessly, into the ground. The pathologist worker also said at any given time the staffing situation in healthcare is "dire", with most wards or clinics having just enough workers to get by. Pathologies had barely just gotten over the hurdle that was the prior lockdown, with very few resources and dwindling staffing. Fresh twist after people wrongly sent negative Covid results. Crazy scenes as people fight for Covid tests amid Omicron outbreak.
Omicron has taken off, particularly in NSW where the lack of controls has really allowed it to go completely out of control," he said. The Reddit post said testing capacity was at the "absolute limit" and there is no more equipment available, "let alone staff" to process test samples — which is why so many people are reporting waiting up to three or four days for their result.
Is some cases having to miss out on their holiday. The testing system doesn't end after tests have been processed with data entry and the work required to send results "crippling" some labs. It's a time consuming process and the pathologist warned people should not trust labs saying results will be available in a matter of hours. We are being bombarded with work and cannot make things go any faster, not for you or anybody else," they said, adding their own test has been sitting idle for days among other tests yet to be processed.
With the rising number of Covid cases, testing requirements for travel and people wanting to make sure they're not passing on Covid to loved ones over the Christmas period, it's no wonder the testing system is overwhelmed. Dr Moy says instead of testing travellers, attention needs to be redirected to those who are symptomatic and therefore more infectious. Private providers have been a vital support and NSW Health has been working with them to ensure turnaround times for tests are as quick as possible," a spokesperson said.
The pathologist said hospitals and some clinics have rapid PCR tests which are used in cases where a patient needs to be transferred into a different ward, into surgery or to have another procedure. Supplies are running out to operate rapid PCR analysers and they say hospitals are not equipped to handle this. Healthcare staff have been left a burden which we do not have the resources to manage," they said. I cannot speak for nurses or doctors on these wards, they must be going through unimaginable stress and hardship.
The hospitals are not equipped for this. Many on the Reddit thread, who also work in health care, backed up what the anonymous pathologist was saying. A registered nurse and midwife said the impact Covid will have on the "overworked" healthcare system will be felt for decades to come.
Another person remarked that most people won't appreciate the "true cost" and said with a stretched hospital system even non-Covid patients suffer too. Dr Moy said the actual rate of infection in NSW is most likely much higher than what is being reported. It is completely out of control in NSW at the moment. NSW has sped up going into the fog. Before Christmas the state reintroduced a mask mandate and QR code check-ins while premier Dominic Perrottet also announced rapid antigen tests will be provided for free for NSW residents next year.
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Why pcr test takes long time.When you should take a PCR vs. a rapid antigen test
After a slow start, testing for COVID has ramped up in recent weeks, with giant commercial labs jumping into the effort, drive-up testing sites established in some places and new types of tests approved under emergency rules set by the Food and Drug Administration.
Rand Paul R-Ky. We asked experts to help explain why the turn-around time for results can vary widely — from hours to days or even a week — and how that might be changing. That swab goes into a tube and is sent to a lab. Some large hospitals have on-site molecular test labs, but most samples are sent to outside labs for processing. More on that later. That transit time usually runs about 24 hours, but it could be longer, depending on how far the hospital is from the processing lab.
After the RNA is extracted, technicians also must carefully mix special chemicals with each sample and run those combinations in a machine for analysis, a process called polymerase chain reaction PCR , which can detect whether the sample is positive or negative for COVID. Some labs have larger staffs and more machines, so they can process more tests at a time than others. But even for those labs, as demand grows, so does the backlog. Problems with the first CDC test kits also led to delays.
Large commercial labs like those run by companies such as Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp were given the go-ahead late last month by the FDA to start testing, too. Labs at some big-name hospital systems, such as Advent Health, the Cleveland Clinic and the University of Washington, are among those doing this. In addition, the FDA has approved more than a dozen testing kits by various manufacturers or labs under special emergency rules designed to speed the process.
The kits are used in PCR machines, either in hospital labs or large commercial labs. Roche won the first approval from the FDA for a test kit under emergency rules, and it has delivered more than , kits so far. That varies. Large commercial labs can do a lot. LabCorp, for example, said it is processing 20, tests a day — and hopes to do more soon. Other test kit makers and labs are also ramping up capacity.
Smaller labs — such as molecular labs at some hospitals — can do far fewer per day but get results to patients faster because they save on transit time. Even at such hospitals, the tests are often prioritized for patients who have been admitted and staff who might have been exposed to COVID, said Chahine. His lab can process 93 samples at a time and run a few cycles a day, up to about , he said. Last week, it did a day, three days in a row.
As the worldwide demand for testing has grown, so, too, have shortages of the chemical agents used in the test kits, the swabs used to get the samples, and the protective masks and gear used by health workers taking the samples. At the front of the line, she said, should be health care workers and first responders; older adults who have symptoms, especially those living in nursing homes or assisted living residences; and people who may have other illnesses that would be treated differently if they were infected.
Bottom line: prioritizing who is tested will help speed the turnaround time for getting results to people in these circumstances and reduce their risk of spreading the illness. Still, urgent shortages of some of the chemicals needed to process the tests are hampering efforts to test health care workers , including at hospitals such as SUNY Downstate medical center in hard-hit New York.
Looking forward, companies are working on quicker tests. Indeed, the FDA in recent days has approved tests from two companies that promise results in 45 minutes or less. Those will be available only in hospitals that have special equipment to run them. One of those companies, Cepheid of Sunnyvale, California, says about 5, U.
Both firms say they will ship to the hospitals soon but have given few specifics on quantity or timing. But many public health officials say doctors and clinics need a truly rapid test they can use in their offices, one like the tests already in use for influenza or strep throat.
A number of companies are moving in that direction. The tests are processed on a small device already installed in thousands of medical offices, ERs, urgent care clinics and other settings. Abbott said it will begin this week to make 50, tests available per day. Even though lab-based PCR tests, which are done at large labs and academic medical centers, can take several hours to produce a result, the machines used can test high numbers of cases all at once.
The rapid test by Abbott — and other, similar tests now under development — do far fewer at a time but deliver results much faster. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente. As you get older, you might not be able to do the things you used to. Maybe your knees give you trouble.
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