A lack of air conditioning is creating challenges for Indiana’s COVID-19 testing. The state-sponsored sites run by OptumServe were initially set up in National Guard armories. The problem now, according to State Health Commissioner Dr. Kris Box, is that few if any of those buildings are air conditioned, and there are OSHA guidelines that have to be followed to keep the workers safe.
“And so, once that heat gets up to be about 78 to 80 and they’re in their personal protective equipment, they will shut down,” Box said during Wednesday’s COVID-19 briefing. “And unfortunately, in order to go as long as they can, that ends up being a last-minute decision.” That means that individuals with testing appointments may have them canceled with little notice.
Box said the state has been working with local communities to move COVID-19 testing to other locations, but even then, there are still issues. “Some of them have been in schools, and so now that schools are getting ready to reopen, we are having to shuffle those sites around,” Box said.
Once an individual does make it into a testing site, it often takes longer for the results to come back, as the labs are getting more tests to process. “That makes contact tracing very difficult because it just puts you that much further into this whole thing,” Box noted, “although we do send the individual home who is tested and symptomatic and explain to them that they have to stay isolated at home until the result is back.”
Box said her department has been advocating for Indiana tests to be run as a priority and is using the lab testing network launched last month to help the labs get supplies.
