After delays, test kits on way to Florida to increase testing ability, Gov. DeSantis says

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During a recent 37-minute interview with University of Florida professor John Lednicky, a renowned virologist who spent decades studying coronaviruses, his phone was constantly dinging with incoming text messages.

“My phone is going off every two seconds with urgent requests,” Lednicky told a reporter. “They want to know, ‘Can you do tests?’ ”

The calls are coming from people worried they have the virus that causes COVID-19, and from clinicians encountering people with the telltale symptoms of the disease, now declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization.

“They are just scratching the surface,” Lednicky said.

Testing is critical as the coronavirus that was first reported in China, known as SARS CoV-2, has spread across the globe to nearly 130,000 people in close to 120 countries and regions. That includes over 1,300 in the U.S., as of Thursday. The virus has spread to 44 states as of Thursday, including Florida with nearly 30 cases.

Washington state has the most with over 370 cases, followed by New York with 216 and California with 179.

The need for tests in Florida and the United States is critical, Lednicky said. Without more testing, authorities don’t have enough data to tell how many Americans have been infected by the virus, and can’t confirm if there has been community spread.

“We don’t know because there is not enough testing being done,” he said.

The Trump Administration has been criticized for its handling of the coronavirus, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials have been grilled by Congress over its lack of preparation, especially compared to the successful way it handled the Zika virus, Ebola and other contagious diseases.

President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar have said anyone can get a test and there’s no shortage. But members of the public are finding that's not the case.

The CDC was accused of botching the roll out of the first set of tests, delaying testing by weeks. The agency eventually sent out 1.1 million tests, and has promised another 4 million tests by next week.

As of March 10, the CDC reported that its labs tested 3,791 samples, and U.S. public health laboratories tested 7,288 for a total approaching 12,000.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has said there is no evidence of community spread in Florida, despite comments to the contrary made by Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health.  

DeSantis said, during a news conference Wednesday at the Capitol, that with “a community spread situation, you have three, four people who never traveled or never had contact with anyone who traveled, (and) you start thinking they maybe touched a public railing and started doing all of this ...

"All the cases except one so far has a link to either someone who was positive or has been traveling ....”

The CDC defines community spread as when one person tests positive who reportedly did not have relevant travel history or exposure to another known patient who tested positive.

DeSantis said he “can’t say yes or no" about community spread in Florida of coronavirus: "I don't have knowledge of ... all 21 million people. Cases come in, they're tested, they're positive, then the investigation goes on.”

As of Thursday, fewer than 500 tests were conducted in Florida, with 301 negatives and 147 still pending. The Department of Health on Thursday reported 35 positive cases, including three non-residents and five Floridians still in isolation after being brought back to the state. 

DeSantis isn't waiting for the CDC to deliver those test kits to increase the state’s capability. He announced in Miami Thursday that he authorized state Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz to buy 2,500 commercial test kits, which should arrive this weekend. 

The kits will be distributed to 50 qualified labs around the state to be closer to the communities that need them, instead of sending all samples to one of the state’s three labs in Jacksonville, Miami and Tampa. The kits will be able to test 625,000 people, he said.

“We have to increase our testing capability in Florida,” DeSantis said at a news conference at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, which will be one of the first hospitals to get test kits.

The first positive case in Florida not tested by the CDC or the state labs was reported Thursday: A 68-year-old Seminole County man tested by Advent Health Altamonte Springs.

At a news conference in Tallahassee this week, DeSantis said he has been talking with University of Florida officials about developing a test as well. 

Also, he said, Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp will be able to test people who present symptoms, adding to the state’s capacity. But those companies take weeks to get results back, compared to the 24-48 hour turnaround of county health departments and 3-5 days for the CDC in Atlanta.

Lednicky said he already has a test ready to go, but it takes money to develop it for the public and there are rigid rules for testing and federal approval.

“As a coronavirus researcher, I developed my own test four years ago, which works very well for this coronavirus,” he said. “I’ve used it for detecting the coronavirus in bats.”

UF officials said a test is being developed that is different than the one Lednicky has already developed.

LabCorp and Quest can also test for the coronavirus, but universities can do things those commercial labs cannot do, Lednicky said. 

“Viruses are mutating constantly,” he said. “A lab can grow the virus, and can keep up with the mutations, track where the virus is changing from, and do tests for antiviral agents. But the money has to come from somewhere.”

To process 1,000 samples a day would require an initial $300,000 investment in equipment, Lednicky said.

“There are expert groups across the country that could be testing,” he said. “The thing is we don't have the resources to do that kind of testing.”

Contact Jeff Schweers at jschweers@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @jeffschweers.

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