California making progress on coronavirus testing backlog, now has 13,500 cases: Newsom

Claiming progress in reducing California’s massive backlog of coronavirus test results, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday announced an extensive public-private effort to produce a five-fold increase in testing in the state in coming weeks.

While it has been perhaps the nation’s most aggressive state in using social distancing measures to control the spread of a disease that has now afflicted more than 13,500 Californians, the state has lagged in the number of tests conducted and the speed it has processed those tests, making it hard to get a handle on the true reach of the virus.

“The testing space has been a challenging one for us, and I own that,” Newsom said. “I have a responsibility as your governor to do better and to do more testing.”

The governor praised commercial labs for reducing the test backlog from a peak of nearly 60,000 down to 13,000. Experts had earlier said labs had been overwhelmed by the demand, with one company, Quest Diagnostics, saying in a statement Thursday it had a backlog of 115,000 tests at 12 labs nationwide. In late March the company finished switching to a higher throughput test and says it can can now process 30,000 tests a day.

California has conducted 126,700 tests, Newsom said, half the 283,612 tests done in New York state, where more than 113,700 people have tested positive. Tests have been so limited that even Californians with coronavirus symptoms have routinely been told simply to presume they have the virus and isolate at home.

Newsom said California’s COVID-19 case total is a 12.4 percent increase from the day before, of which 2,300 have been hospitalized and 1,008 are in ICU — a nearly 11 percent increase. So far more than 300 Californians have died from the virus.

To cut back the testing backlog, Newsom said he convened a task force with consultants and public and private sector leaders, chaired by Dr. Charity Dean, assistant director at California’s public health department, and Paul Markovich, CEO of Blue Shield of California.

“I can confidently say it’s a new day, and we’re turning the page on our old approach,” he said.

The governor added that he wants to see at least a five-fold increase in testing in the state in the next few weeks, announcing several public and private partnerships to get there. The University of California, Davis, and the University of California, San Diego, will create at least five to seven hubs for testing spread out throughout the state, he said.

Additionally, Newsom announced more point-of-care testing sites that can return results in 5 to 15 minutes would be rolled out by a private company. He said Abbott Laboratories would work with 13 hospital systems in the state to open 75 testing sites.

Newsom also praised Stanford Health for developing the first “home-grown” blood sample tests. The serological tests uses blood withdrawals to determine if a patient’s immune system has developed antibodies in response to coronavirus infection, instead of the nasal swabs employed in other types of tests.

The governor also announced the launch of a new website for businesses and other organizations to describe medical supplies they may have available for donation or sale. The site was developed in partnership with San Francisco-based Salesforce.

“We have been overwhelmed and humbled by the amount of individuals and businesses that have been willing to support our efforts, particularly on critical medical supplies,” Newsom said, promising a fuller update early next week on the state’s efforts to solve a critical shortage of ventilators, masks and other critical equipment.

Reporter Nico Savidge contributed to this report.