A key part of NC’s coronavirus testing and tracing plans might take longer than you think

A key component of North Carolina’s COVID-19 testing initiative may take months to begin providing meaningful coronavirus data to state officials.

On a conference call last Friday with N.C. Republican leaders, at least one researcher revealed that testing conducted by three hospitals — UNC, Duke and East Carolina — could take three months before yielding meaningful results, the Editorial Board learned. That testing could help inform N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper and state health officials about COVID-19’s spread and prevalence in suburban and rural N.C. counties.

Republican Senate leader Phil Berger was dismayed to learn about the timeframe, which he worries could slow decisions the governor might make to reopen North Carolina’s economy. Testing has been a point of conflict between Cooper and Berger, who pushed early for widespread testing of asymptomatic populations. Cooper and Department of Health and Human Services didn’t fully embrace such testing at first — state epidemiologist Zack Moore expressed a preference last month for tracking COVID-19 by using a network of emergency department and hospital admissions data.

Eventually, an impatient Berger launched his own testing initiative, using legislative funds to partner with Wake Forest Baptist Health earlier this month on a program that involves sending test kits to 1,000 participants, who will prick their fingers for blood samples that will be tested for COVID-19 antibodies. Soon after, on April 17, Cooper announced the state’s partnership with UNC, Duke and ECU. The latter partnership was the topic of the conference call Friday that revealed the three-month timeframe.

In contrast, Berger spokesperson Pat Ryan told the Editorial Board on Tuesday that initial public data from the Wake Forest testing could be available as early as next week. Why is the UNC/Duke/ECU testing apparently taking longer to provide information? How does the testing at UNC and Duke differ from the Wake Forest study?

Those answers are surprisingly hard to come by. While East Carolina officials explained that researchers are partnering with the Pitt County health department to survey and swab participants, UNC and Duke officials told The NC Insider last week that they were unable to reach researchers who could answer questions. A UNC spokesperson, Matthew Chamberlin, similarly told the Editorial Board this week he was unable to get in touch with two researchers, and Chamberlin said he could not talk about the testing.

Make no mistake, testing is fast becoming a political issue in North Carolina. Republicans believe widespread testing will help hasten the reopening of N.C.’s economy, but they also know it’s one of the few places where the governor has shown COVID-19 vulnerability. Neither Cooper nor anyone is helped by researchers being tight-lipped about their testing program.

It’s also true, however, that the Wake, ECU, UNC and Duke initiatives are no substitute for the widespread testing that the country should be doing. Instead, states have largely been left on their own by the Trump administration, which unlike other countries failed to get ahead of this crisis and has fallen far short on basic testing promises and claims. In fact, a little more than 200,000 Americans on average are being tested each day, still less than half of the 500,000 or more that experts believe is necessary.

As a result, North Carolina’s governor and health officials will be making critical COVID-19 decisions by cobbling together tracing and testing data, some of which is apparently months away. We urge the Trump administration to do a better job of supporting states with testing kits and laboratory supplies needed to process them.

With critical decisions looming now and throughout 2020, North Carolina needs as much good information as it can get.

This story was originally published April 29, 2020 at 8:09 AM.