(WXYZ) — “It is a matter of life or death.” That’s how Wayne County Commissioner Monique Baker McCormick (D-Detroit) describes the need to get coronavirus test results back quickly.
McCormick’s daughter, Keianna, still doesn’t have results from a coronavirus test she took at Western Michigan University’s campus health clinic on March 18.
“Am I not important just because I’m young? The boy at my school, he just died from it,” said Keianna McCormick, referring to the death of Bassey Offiong.
The 20-year-old WMU junior said when she got a fever back on March 18 at school, she and her mom had to fight for hours with the school health clinic and the state to get a coronavirus test.
“I was very desperate because I didn’t want to spread it to anyone,” Keianna said.
But even after 13 days, Keianna still doesn’t have the results back.
“People are dying all around us, and I’m just asking that we do a better job of ensuring that people get tested,” said Commissioner McCormick.
While Keianna is now back home in Detroit with her mother and no longer has symptoms, now Commissioner McCormick does.
“I do know that I got sick once she came home,” McCormick said.
The commissioner also says her 73-year-old father, B.T. Baker, was hospitalized last week.
“He has pneumonia. He still does not have his test results back,” McCormick said.
McCormick says she found out the state did not consider her daughter’s test a high priority. And she’s not alone. Other viewers have emailed us saying they, too, have had to wait 10 days or more to get results back from private labs as well. Some describe the feeling as “being held hostage,” and not knowing whether to go to the hospital despite severe symptoms for fear of being exposed to the virus (if they don’t have it).
“So we’re saying and telling people that we’re trying to prevent this, the spread of the coronavirus, but we’re not doing our job as leaders and elected officials and making sure that everyone that needs a test is tested -- and they’re tested timely, and they can actually get the results,” McCormick said.
A state health department spokeswoman says here’s how test results are ranked:
Priority 1 patients include hospitalized patients and health care workers with symptoms of coronavirus.
Priority 2 patients include those who are in long-term care facilities with symptoms, patients over the age of 65, those with underlying health conditions, and first responders who have symptoms.
If resources allow -- Priority 3 patients include critical infrastructure workers and other first responders.
McCormick wants our state and private labs to do better.
“It’s horrible for all of us right now, every day someone is passing away or they’re in the hospital struggling to survive,” McCormick said.
A City of Detroit spokesman tells 7 Action News the coronavirus testing taking place at the state fairgrounds is expected to have a 3 to 4 day turnaround.
Here is what a Beaumont spokesman told us about their testing times:
Beaumont’s in-house laboratory is running tests for inpatients. For curbside COVID-19 testing, we send out to reference laboratories for results. Beaumont utilizes outside reference labs, because our in-house lab capacity is limited.
Our experience for turnaround times from reference laboratories is about 7-10 days. There are definitely outliers to this timeframe. We have an example of a case collected on March 17 which was confirmed by the outside lab, but we still don’t have results. The reference laboratories have posted turnaround times as follows: Lab Corp 4-5 days, Quest 3-4 days. They do give the caveat with volume changes, there may be more significant delays. The nation seems to have overwhelmed the larger reference laboratories (for us: Quest/ARUP/Lab Corp) the week of March 16 when collections were ramping up and they weren’t prepared to support the high incoming volume. The specimens collected the week of the March 2, were processed with fewer delays, when the labs seemed more prepared for the volume.
Here is what a spokesman for Henry Ford Health Systems told 7 Action News:
We are working as efficiently as possible to process test results. At Henry Ford, we are prioritizing testing for patients who are hospitalized, Emergency Department patients who are admitted to the hospital and health care workers. Those tests are typically completed in about 24-48 hours.
Testing for patients who are not admitted and those screened at Henry Ford drive-through locations are sent to an outside lab for processing. Due to a high volume of test results, the turnaround can be six to 10 days. A worldwide shortage of testing supplies, however, has created some unpredictability with turnaround times.
We understand the desire to get results back quickly. Please know that we are doing our best to minimize the time it takes to provide results, even in light of the high volume and complexity of these tests.
Additional Coronavirus information and resources:
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Click here for a page with resources including a COVID-19 overview from the CDC, details on cases in Michigan, a timeline of Governor Gretchen Whitmer's orders since the outbreak, coronavirus' impact on Southeast Michigan, and links to more information from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, the CDC and the WHO.
View a global coronavirus tracker with data from Johns Hopkins University.
Find out how you can help metro Detroit restaurants struggling during the pandemic.
See all of our Helping Each Other stories.
See complete coverage on our Coronavirus Continuing Coverage page.