North Carolina's Changing COVID-19 Testing Landscape

Day after day, more North Carolinians are testing positive for COVID-19. As of Tuesday, there were 40 cases being reported statewide, and questions persist about how many tests are available and who has access to them.

State Senator Jeff Jackson represents the Charlotte area, the biggest city in North Carolina. He's been active on social media keeping people up to date on this rapidly changing situation. He spoke with WFDD's David Ford.

Interview Highlights

On how to get tested for coronavirus:

Well, one way is you go to a doctor and that doctor orders you a test from a non-state source like LabCorp, a private commercial source that's able to do the test. But in order to qualify for a public, state lab test, you have to have a fever of at least 100.4°F . You have to have a negative result for a flu test and then you have to have some type of respiratory symptom like a cough or shortness of breath. If you have those three things, fever of 100.4°F, negative flu test, and a cough, you qualify for a state lab test. 

On the barriers that remain to in-state testing:

Well, that is in theory, what qualifies you. But the problem is we have a shortage of supply when it comes to these state test kits. And there are a lot of reasons for that. It doesn't really have anything to do with the state of North Carolina. It has more to do with the CDC sort of being behind on this process because they had to remanufacture a lot of their test kits because there was an error, a manufacturing error in the first round of kits. So we're now very behind on getting these kits out to the rest of the country. Also the states that are being prioritized by the CDC for test kits are the states that have so far really been hammered. So Washington, California, New York. North Carolina is getting a sliver of the national total. 

On what's being done to increase testing in North Carolina:

One thing we're doing is making sure that all doctors understand what qualifies someone for a test, because there was a lot of confusion about that. So last night, notification was sent out to every doctor in the state that says if you have a patient with a fever of 100.4°F, a negative flu result, and a cough, they qualify for a test. We had a COVID-19 hotline that a lot of doctors were calling and it had been completely overwhelmed. So we've added capacity which should allow more doctors to actually ask those questions to make sure that the people who are eligible actually are ordered a test. We're also increasing our capacity by working with private vendors and non-state folks like major hospital networks that are starting up in-house testing capacity. So over the last week, you've seen a dramatic expansion of testing capacity. A lot of communities are going to have health care providers with in house testing capacity. I think that's going to be a bigger story going forward. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: This transcript was lightly edited for clarity.

For the most up-to-date information on coronavirus in North Carolina, visit our Live Updates blog here.