Representatives for the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) said they continue to see supply chain issues with testing supplies.
“We do our best to plan to have enough supplies to test for the next two weeks,” Megan Crumpler, laboratory director in California’s Orange County Public Health Laboratory, said at a press briefing Thursday.
“I have referred to it as a game of whack-a-mole, where you are constantly… trying to figure out which test kit or which extraction kit you're going to be able to get that week and moving forward with that," Crumpler said.
Scott Becker, the Chief Executive Officer at APHL said he has seen progress with regards to swabs, specifically.
“My understanding is that FEMA is now delivering swabs to the state and the states are responsible for organizing; again according to whatever their plan is for testing to ensure that those swabs get where they need to go," he said.
Becker said going forward, the supply issue is “first and foremost our biggest concern.”
“Whatever scheme is developed out of the White House Task Force has to absolutely ensure that Public Health Laboratories have the necessary support that they need. We've been working with them and with CDC, of course throughout this to share what are the instruments and what are the needs of the public health labs –– so supplies are first and foremost," Becker said.