Coronavirus testing continues to trickle down to the masses.
CVS is opening 14 more drive-thru sites in California where people can self-administer the nasal swab test for diagnosing active virus, even as more antibody tests — designed to detect past infections — come to consumers. The pharmacy chain promised more drive-thru sites by the end of May, aiming for 1,000 COVID-19 testing sites nationwide.
Exer Urgent Care is among those offering both swab and antibody tests at its 16 sites in the Los Angeles area as well.
Lab kits for home tests can be shipped directly to your home, then popped back into the mail.
Experts say much more testing is needed to understand how widespread the virus has become, to swiftly spot outbreaks, and then to isolate and contain them. That could help save lives — but consumers should proceed with caution.
Self-swab diagnostic
As of Friday, May 22, the self-swab diagnostic tests will be available by appointment at CVS stores in in Costa Mesa (1150 Baker St.), Eastvale (14220 Schleisman Road), Riverside (491 E. Alessandro Blvd.), Seal Beach (921 Pacific Coast Highway) and Yorba Linda (18080 Imperial Highway).
To get an appointment, folks must meet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria — symptoms including fever, cough, shortness of breath, chills, muscle pain, new loss of taste or smell, vomiting or diarrhea, and/or sore throat; or asymptomatic people prioritized by health officials, such as frontline workers who may have been exposed to the virus.
People must register in advance at cvs.com/minuteclinic/covid-19-testing. The company aims to have more than half of its test sites in vulnerable communities, as measured by poverty rates, access to transportation and housing density.
The self-swab tests will be processed by an independent third-party lab, with results available in about three days, officials said.
Cost? CVS will accept insurance at the drive-thru test sites, but, under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act approved by Congress, patients should not have any out-of-pocket costs with their insurance. Uninsured patients will be covered under a program funded by the Department of Health and Human Services, officials said.
Some physicians are leery about self-swab tests. Swabs must gather good samples to be accurate, and one doctor likened the swabbing process to a “brain biopsy” and fears people won’t self-swab as thoroughly as necessary. That could lead to negative test results in people who might be positive for COVID-19.
CVS officials said that, “According to the CDC, a self-administered nasal swab is similar to the more invasive nasopharyngeal swab in detecting coronavirus and has the benefit of being less invasive and easier to do.”
Team members inside stores and at pharmacy drive-thru windows will provide people with information on how to appropriately perform a self-swab, and will observe the process to ensure that it’s done properly, they said.
Blood tests
While diagnostic tests for active illness are becoming more available, blood tests — designed to find antibodies to past infections — are becoming more widely available as well.
LabCorp announced expanded access to its COVID-19 antibody test on May 5. People can get it via their doctors (in person or through a telemedicine program), and directly at www.LabCorp.com/antibody-testing, the company said.
Quest made antibody testing available to health care providers on April 21, and directly to consumers via QuestDirect on April 27.
Exer Urgent Care is offering antibody testing at 16 locations across Southern California, including Los Angeles, Pasadena, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach and Rolling Hills Estates. It offers nasal swab tests as well.
“In this global pandemic, antibody testing is becoming critical in helping us understand how widespread the virus may be and integral to helping us move forward and getting people back to work,” said Brian Wilbur, chief medical officer, by email.
After being slow to approve diagnostic tests for COVID-19, the FDA swung in the other direction with serology tests, allowing a flood of questionable tests onto the market without the usual validation. The FDA has since tightened up its requirements.
Right now, people should be seeking reliable and accurate COVID-19 tests with authorization from the FDA, and screening, education and counseling on the results should be part of the testing process, Wilbur said.
Proceed with caution
Doctors caution about reading too much into the results of serology tests.
People with antibodies should not assume that they’re immune to the virus and can swing back into their old lives — there’s not enough evidence to suggest a change in behavior is appropriate, researchers say.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office — America’s watchdog — worries about the varying accuracy of even the tests that have received emergency use authorization from the FDA.
“Testing provides critical information for a variety of purposes, including medical care, policymaking, and business,” it said in a “spotlight” report released May 20.
Testing helps determine risk, illuminates the disease’s impact, identifies those who may have been exposed but showed no symptoms as well as those who recovered, and can guide treatment and resource allocation by showing precisely where infections are happening. That informs decisions on quarantine and isolation, and on public responses such as school closures and re-openings.
“Although widespread testing offers a number of opportunities, there are also challenges in implementation,” the GAO said. “The performance characteristics of some COVID-19 tests have raised concerns about test accuracy. In particular, available data suggest variability in the rates of false positive and false negative results. This uncertainty can complicate patient treatment and public health decisions.”
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A list of CVS Pharmacy drive-thru test sites can be found at cvshealth.com/covid-19/testing-locations. Exer sites are at exerurgentcare.com/.
For more testing sites in Orange County, see occovid19.ochealthinfo.com/covid-19-testing-and-screening. In Los Angeles County, see covid19.lacounty.gov/testing/. In Riverside County, see rivcoph.org/coronavirus and temeculaca.gov/1384/Local-COVID-19-Testing-Sites. In San Bernardino, see sbcovid19.com/community-drive-through-events/.
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