On Friday, March 13, health officials with the State of North Carolina explained the difficulty the state is having in getting virus test materials and they also announced new guidelines for reporting test results to the public.
The press release from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NC DHHS) states, “North Carolina, like all states, continues to face limited access to supplies needed to complete the COVID-19 testing. We have been aggressively working with our academic and private lab partners to do everything possible to ensure that testing is where it needs to be in the state.”
State official in a press release on Friday, March 13 stated that the situation is improving.
“Our situation is better than it was a week ago and more people are being tested and more testing continues to come online, but the supply chain continues to be a real challenge. Testing is processed by either the State Laboratory for Public Health, academic labs, or private labs, not by local health departments.”
In the same press release, NC DHHS announced the new manner in which the state will distribute information regarding results to the public.
The press release states that, from this point on, NC DHHS will update virus case counts every day at 11 a.m. It will report those cases that are “presumptive positive” based on CDC guidelines – as well as those that have been confirmed by the CDC lab.
The state informed members of the media it will not provide additional updates on case counts for individual inquiries. Instead, it notes, “The website is up-to-date and accurate, updated every day at 11 a.m.”
“We cannot provide information on people who are being evaluated or tested for COVID-19,” it stated. “We will update positive cases.”
NC DHHS also notes that people should contact their doctor or local health department to see if they need to be tested.
