Meck’s weekly number of coronavirus tests could double. Here’s what we know. 

The expanded coronavirus testing Mecklenburg County announced last week is part of an effort to boost a statewide testing rate that is among the nation’s lowest.

North Carolina ranks 43rd in the nation in tests per 1,000 residents, McClatchy reported Friday. That’s according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, which analyzed data through May 7 from The COVID Tracking Project.

Last month, as the state moved toward easing its stay-at-home restrictions, the state Department of Health and Human Services set a new goal of testing 5,000 to 7,000 people a day.

DHHS recommended that all counties increase their testing to 5% of their population in 30 days to meet the statewide goal, as Mecklenburg did, county spokeswoman Rebecca Carter said Monday. Each county was asked to create a testing plan to accomplish that, she said.

In Mecklenburg County, the increased testing is expected to cover at least 50,000 people. The number of people tested weekly will nearly double.

About 36,000 people, or 3.2% percent of Mecklenburg County’s population, has been tested so far, public health director Gibbie Harris said in announcing the plan last Thursday. The added testing would put the proportion of the county tested at over 8%.

“This increases our ability to isolate those who are positive, expand contact tracing and identification of those potential exposed, and quarantining of those exposed,” Carter said.

Mecklenburg reported a total of 2,132 COVID-19 cases Monday, with 63 related deaths.

The county is still working on the logistics of the test expansion, Carter said.

Testing another 12,950 residents a week would require about 1,850 tests a day, roughly doubling the pace of recent weeks but in line with the volume hospitals had reported by the middle of last week, Harris has said.

While Atrium Health and Novant Health are high-volume testing centers, the county wants to increase testing by smaller providers including community heath clinics, urgent care facilities and private practitioners.

Laboratories have also increased the availability of testing supplies, Carter said. Some tests don’t require full protective gear for medical workers, which has been in short supply, and the county continues to look for gear for testing that does require it.

“We are reaching out to providers who can expand and/or begin to provide testing in the community,” Carter said.

Expanding who can get tested

Hospital and private labs such as the North Carolina-based LabCorp have ramped up their testing capacities. Results for each tier of testing need to be back within 72 hours to be useful, Harris said last week. Most results are now being returned within 24 to 48 hours, she said.

Expanded testing could mean the health department will offer tests to people identified as possible contacts of a person who has tested positive, Harris told the COVID-19 Business Leaders Roundtable on Monday. If there’s a “cluster” at a business, for example, the county might ask to test all workers at the site.

Priorities for testing have so far included those with more severe symptoms or weakened immune systems, older people, health care workers and first responders.

Over the next two weeks, in addition to those test subjects, a second tier will test patients with milder symptoms, those with no symptoms but who have medium or high risk of exposure to the virus, and people who will undergo medical procedures that could be complicated by COVID-19.

A third tier, two weeks after entering Phase 2 of statewide restrictions, would include workers in critical infrastructure, which includes facilities such as water treatment works and power plants, and people who show no symptoms.

The number of positive test results for COVID-19 will rise as testing increases, Harris said Thursday. Other key measures, including the number of deaths, hospitalizations and the percentage of positive test results, are stable or declining, she said.

“What we will watch is the percent of positive individuals based on the number of cases we’re doing, as well as watching our hospital census rates,” Harris said. “Those are the things that are going to tell us whether we’re seeing spikes or not.”

This story was originally published May 12, 2020 at 6:00 AM.