Efforts to expand coronavirus testing in the Bay State are hitting snags, from outcry over the lack of testing sites in Western Massachusetts to labs that aren’t getting enough supplies to meet increasing demand.
Gov. Charlie Baker’s plan to “stop the spread” by boosting testing in Chelsea, Everett, Fall River, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, Marlborough and New Bedford — communities where positivity rates far exceed the state’s average and where testing has dropped off — is being criticized by officials west of Interstate 495 who say their high-risk communities are being cut out.
“Western Massachusetts is being left behind,” State Sen. Eric Lesser, D-Longmeadow, said. “It just frankly is inexcusable and just defies common sense that you would not have a single site west of 495.”
The eight municipalities Baker selected have 14-day positivity rates between 2.7% and 7.46%, while the state’s average was 2.25%, according to weekly data from the Department of Public Health.
Yet several western communities have been similarly hard hit: Springfield has a 14-day positivity rate of 4.25%, Worcester’s is 4.17% and Chicopee’s is 2.83%.
“We have many very vulnerable and very high-risk communities,” Lesser said. “The idea that a person of limited needs, a low-income person, a person from an immigrant community or non-English speaking community is going to be able to access a site in Marlborough 70 miles away is totally unrealistic and totally defeats the purpose of the initiative.”
Alex Morse, the mayor of Holyoke, which has a 3% positivity rate, said, “If we want to keep moving forward, we have to make sure there is adequate testing in every corner of the state.”
Baker said in a press conference Wednesday that cases in Western Massachusetts — one of the first parts of the state to show “significant” outbreaks in the early days of the pandemic — have dropped off and remained low.
“If we start to see movement in any of these places, we’ll make adjustments,” Baker said.
Massachusetts is among the minority of states that currently meet the positive test rate goals laid out by the World Health Organization and the Harvard Global Health Institute.
But the reality is murkier. As the Baker administration moves to bolster testing in eight communities, other sites are closing or being scaled down due to lack of demand. At the same time, some medical centers say they’re falling short on supplies while facing higher need.
Dr. Rebecca Osgood, chief of pathology at Cambridge Health Alliance, said hospitals resuming elective surgeries, nursing homes testing residents and staff, major employers looking to swab all their workers and people voluntarily seeking tests as they return to work and travel are all contributing to increased demand.
At the same time, longstanding supply chain issues remain. CHA has been having trouble getting reagents, the chemicals used to run the tests, since mid-April, Osgood said. The state noted a rising number of labs reporting challenges with certain manufacturers placing purchasing limits on supplies.
“All of these demands overwhelmed pretty much every company,” Osgood said, adding, “It’s slowing availability and turnaround time for results.”
Dr. Shira Doron, an infectious disease physician and hospital epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center, is facing a similar problem.
“We are not able to get everything we need,” Doron said. “We are 3D-printing our nasopharyngeal swabs.”
Alexi Cohan contributed to this report.
