STAT pandemic tests! COVID- testing must be free with quickly reported results

Echo opinion publsihed in the Ohio newspaper The Plain Dealer, the major newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio

https://www.cleveland.com/letters/2020/08/covid-19-testing-should-be-free-and-readily-available.html

To the editor:  After being exposed to a family with COVID-19 symptoms, I attempted to get a COVID-19 test myself. With the outstanding medical resources in Northeast Ohio, this should have been simple and quick, now six months into the pandemic. 

Unfortunately, what I discovered was just the opposite.

The Cleveland Clinic and University 

COVID tests must be given promptly after exposure to the virus with quickly recported results!

Hospitals require a doctor’s order for the COVID test. 

MetroHealth cannot administer a test if you do not have symptoms. Without symptoms, I could get tested by a pharmacy testing site. 

Nevertheless, I would have had to wait three days for an appointment and results would be available in six to ten days; that meant nine to 13 days to get results from the day that I first tried to get a test. 

Consequently, I opted to self-quarantine rather than to get the test.

This experience prompted two questions: How many people would not self-quarantine under these circumstances and possibly spread the virus? What are the testing conditions in rural areas?

Accessible, free COVID-19 testing with results within 48 hours must be made available for everyone, with or without symptoms. This is available for politicians and athletes, why not the rest of us?

From Ann Pecsok, in Olmsted Township Ohio