Louisiana’s coronavirus testing turnaround time to getting results is lagging. Assistant Health Secretary Dr. Alex Billioux says the problem is with some labs struggling with the supply chain for materials needed to get results. Billioux says the timeliness in getting a result makes the difference in having data useful for stopping the spread versus just adding numbers to the stats. He said three day returns would get results, or better but we are seeing five to seven days, that’s really challenging.
Billioux says the strain put on the state’s testing capabilities could soon have an impact on who is eligible to be swabbed at community testing sites. He said if you have no symptoms, you’ve had no contact with anybody who has ever had COVID, or even recently had COVID, they are probably going to start turning those people away from the community-based testing sites. Louisiana has seen a recent spike in COVID-19 cases in nearly every parish in the state.
