Memphis, Tennessee — As Thanksgiving approaches, many people have considered rushing to get a rapid COVID-19 test, which will provide results that may mean spending time with the extended family.
However, WREG understands that a negative test result does not mean that a person is not infected with COVID-19. This is one of the reasons why some people question these tests, including their use in at-risk elderly people.
The manufacturer described the rapid COVID-19 tests sent to nursing homes across the country and in the south-central area as fast, reliable, and easy to use. They produce “live” results, in some cases only 15 minutes, so that nursing homes do not have to wait for laboratory results.
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services distributed rapid, point-of-care testing kits to 13,850 nursing homes across the country.
CMS distributed point-of-care test kits in three rounds in summer and fall, starting with hotspots, including Shelby County.
CMS sent the tests to more than 700 nursing homes in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee. WREG found more than 300 Tennessee facilities on the list, 27 of which are in Memphis. The following is the site where the test suite is distributed.
Quick testing can save time and possibly save lives. However, some people claim that the type of testing provided by the federal government for our most vulnerable people does not provide adequate protection.
“It’s like we are slowly approaching it, but we are not there,” said Brian Lee, a former government long-term care inspector who now runs his own non-profit monitoring agency called Families for Better Care.
“The tests that are being conducted in nursing homes now are only antigen-based error tests. They only identify people with symptoms, regardless of whether they have the virus or not,” he said. David Aronoff, director of the infectious diseases department at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, explained the different types of tests to WREG.
Aronov said: “I think that during a pandemic, we must be careful to ensure that when we try to save lives, we don’t let perfection become a good enemy.”
Molecules and antigens can diagnose and detect active infections. Antibody testing can reveal previous exposures.
“Now, the gold standard test for infection is actually a molecular test,” said Dr. Aronov.
“They can detect very, very small amounts of this genetic RNA material in our secretions. Their advantage is that they are very sensitive, so they are likely to find very low levels of genetic material.”
“So, for example, after I have recovered from COVID-19 and am no longer infectious, I might pass a molecular test positive for many weeks,” Aronoff said.
“The advantage of antigen tests is that they are relatively inexpensive to manufacture. They are also very fast, a bit like urine pregnancy tests. They are almost as fast and can be done at what we call a point of care,” Aronoff said.
However, antigen tests are hardly as sensitive as molecular tests, and more viruses are needed to make someone test positive.
He said: “If there is a lot of suspicion that the person is indeed infected, then molecular testing to confirm the positive test will be very helpful.”
For nursing homes that use the test, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that a negative POC antigen test be considered presumptive.
A CMS spokesperson said in an email sent to WREG: “Fighting this global pandemic requires a range of different technologies, including antigen testing. In areas with high prevalence or for patients with known risk factors, antigen testing A positive result can be considered verifiable and used for diagnostic purposes. In areas with high prevalence, alternative forms of testing are recommended to confirm negative results.” One manufacturer’s fact sheet also read: “Negative results do not exclude COVID- 19. It should not be used as the sole basis for test results. Treatment.”
“They either need to read the details, accuracy, validity of the results, credibility, these results on the test machine, and really understand how they work, and then provide them with the correct machine and the correct test,” Lee said. “In these nursing homes, we still see too many infections and too many deaths. When we do not enough, innocent lives are being lost.”
In Shelby County, there have been more than 50 outbreaks in long-term care facilities since the pandemic began.
We talked with relatives who were left behind and they questioned how the death happened, especially when visits were stopped earlier this year.
Carlock’s aunt, Shirley Gatewood, had Down syndrome but died of COVID-19. She is a resident of Graceland Rehabilitation and Care Center.
“Why do we keep receiving more and more clusters? When no one is allowed in except the staff,” Carlock asked.
In Graceland, 20 people died (including the new number of deaths in the week of November 23), and 134 residents and 74 staff tested positive. In a daily report issued by the Shelby County Health Department on Tuesday, November 24, the number of infected employees in Graceland increased by 12 people.
In the active cluster of Shelby County facilities, nearly 500 employees were infected, and this number has increased recently.
Current federal guidelines require nursing homes to test residents with symptoms or outbreaks.
Staff testing depends on the county’s positive rate, as of the week of November 14, Shelby County’s positive rate was 11%.
David Sweat, director of epidemiology at the Shelby County Health Department, explained how workers unknowingly introduced the virus into environments such as nursing homes.
“Usually the people who work there are actually those who come to the facility to set up the organism. Then once it is introduced into the facility, it will spread. But remember that with COVID-19, it is insidious because you usually It will start to fall off within two days. You will shed the coronavirus before the symptoms appear,” Sweet said.
“And this virus is three times more infectious than the flu. So it is easier to spread. However, if a person shows no signs or symptoms and they are between tests, they will definitely accidentally introduce the virus into any environment. .”
WREG asked: “So, how can facilities prevent this from happening, so as to help better protect residents?”
Sweat says that everyone does their best. “They exclude people who are sick. They exclude people who test positive. They often test their employees to try to find these things as early as possible, but it’s very difficult.”
This is why Lee says that the type of testing performed in an environment like a nursing home is more important to contain cases.
“Life is too precious. Once loved ones contract COVID and die as a result, we can’t get them back. So it’s best to get the correct test in a nursing home now,” Li said.
There are molecular rapid tests on the market. In fact, there is a claim that results can be delivered within five minutes.
Aronoff said the advantages of this test are the speed and high sensitivity of the test. However, the downside is that they can be more difficult to access and cost more for some people.
The test kits provided to nursing homes are disposable. We asked CMS how quickly they expected the nursing home tests to run out and how they expected to pay afterwards.
A spokesperson said: “The nursing home is responsible for ordering supplies of test/kits with the US$5 billion assistance provided by CMS. After the first shipment of instruments and tests, the nursing home will be responsible for purchasing its own tests directly from the manufacturer or medical device distributor. .”
Earlier this year, Tennessee reimbursed the cost of testing for nursing homes. The funding ceased on October 1, 2020.
WREG contacted several regional nursing homes, which received a quick and immediate test kit from CMS, but we have not yet received a response to our inquiry.
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Post time: Jun-28-2021