CLAYTON — ºüÀêÊÓƵ County needs more coronavirus tests and has been hindered by the state’s strict guidelines on who can be tested and its failure to share data, County Executive Sam Page told Missouri Health Director Randall Williams in a letter dated Wednesday.
Page wrote that he understood the state’s ability to supply local governments with tests was curtailed by a nationwide shortage and a “lack of a serious federal commitment.â€Â But he said it was disappointing when the county asked for 2,500 tests and the state shipped 25. Page said the county was exploring other avenues to obtain tests.
Williams said in a statement that he valued relationships with Page and the county health department and that he found the letter to be “very thoughtful, and we will do everything we can to address his concerns.â€
Page said health care professionals in the ºüÀêÊÓƵ area have had to deny tests to symptomatic people because of DHSS guidelines that are too strict. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended testing anyone with symptoms if there are enough tests, even if the patient is not a close contact of a positive case or otherwise at high risk, he said.
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“If the reason DHSS maintains the stricter testing criteria is because the state lacks an adequate testing supply to meet demand,†Page wrote, “then I hope DHSS will share that information with me and the public so that we can all fully understand the challenges we face.â€
Previously, Missouri had rationed test kits only to patients with symptoms severe enough to be hospitalized, or to patients with symptoms plus known contact with someone who already tested positive for COVID-19. Patients could also get tested if they had symptoms and had recently traveled to an area with a documented widespread outbreak.
On Monday night, for example, the state was reporting 91 cases in the city of ºüÀêÊÓƵ. The city's website was reporting 150.Â
Doug Moore, a spokesman for Page, clarified later that the county had seen the state's looser guidelines in practice but “the state still needs to be more reasonable so as many people can get tested as possible.â€
On Thursday, 1,834 positive cases and 19 deaths, with about 19,340 people tested by all labs. it had 7,695 cases confirmed and 157 deaths, with 43,656 people tested.
Page also told Williams the county may be collecting incomplete data because medical providers are required to report a positive test to either the county or state — but not both.
And he said because tests are only being performed at state and private labs, the county lacked access to data about the total numbers of tests performed, the numbers of hospitalizations, the numbers of patients with COVID-19 in intensive-care beds and the numbers who have been discharged from hospitals.
And, he said, the state’s data collection system does not update regularly enough to allow the county health department to analyze demographic data “that we need to understand and represent how our residents are impacted by this epidemic.â€
At a news conference on Thursday, Williams said that starting Friday the state would release data on the numbers of patients in hospitals with COVID-19, the numbers of ventilators the state has on hand, the number of intensive care beds available and data on how quickly patients are being discharged.
Moore said: “We appreciate the new information DHSS has committed to releasing.â€
Jack Suntrup of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
Updated at 5:12 p.m.