Wisconsin Can't Process as Many Coronavirus Tests Needed When Schools and Colleges Reopen
Monday, August 24th, 2020 -- 10:03 AM
(AP) -Wisconsin can’t process as many coronavirus tests as health officials say they want when schools and colleges reopen this fall.State Department of Health Services Secretary Andrea Palm said Friday that health officials will prioritize testing and processing for outbreaks as students return to classrooms and resume interacting, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. “There certainly is not enough testing . . . to do it at the level that you would want to do it ideally in a situation like this,” Palm said. Three times last month the number of tests conducted met or exceeded the state’s capacity to analyze them. The state’s processing has increased since then from around 22,600 to 26,162 as of Friday. The University of Wisconsin-Madison alone plans to process at least 6,000 tests a week.
Other campuses plan to test only students who are symptomatic or who have been exposed to the virus. If tests take days to be analyzed, infected people could spread the virus to others, a huge risk in college dorms or classrooms full of children. UW System Interim President Tommy Thompson said Friday he has plans to shut down the system if infections reach a certain number but declined to share any details, saying the number is in his head.
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