Symptomatic People Are Being Prioritized By Health Care Providers

Nikki Attkisson | Last Updated : January 11, 2022

Covid-19 tests are ameliorating with each passing day in every state of the United States of America. This is caused by the surge in cases triggered by the fast-spreading omicron variant. In many states, due to shortage of the testing kits in the country people are panicking and losing hope as well.

Symptomatic People Are Being Prioritized By Health Care Providers

However, in order to deal with such circumstances, doctors and scientists are proposing various solutions such as prioritizing the cases which need immediate attention.

Symptomatic People Are Being Prioritized By Health Care Providers

This has now increasingly created pressure on the laboratories as the number of tests that they are expected to process is way beyond their capacity. To tackle this problem, healthcare providers in the United States have now decided that only symptomatic patients will be tested, in an effort to reduce the stress on the laboratories. Two healthcare facilities have been forced to do so and The University of Washington is one of them. So now, the facility of testing is only available for only those patients who have developed symptoms like sore throat, fever, loss of smell, and other symptoms that people get when they are exposed to infections of the respiratory tract. Also, those who are known to be exposed to covid 19 are being tested. This was informed to the media houses by the director of media relations, Susan Gregg, via email. 

The facilities in universities are not testing asymptomatic patients anymore so that laboratories can be relieved of the pressure that is piling on them increasingly. Due to limitations in the capacity to process samples, at least 3 university sites working as covid testing locations have been forced to close temporarily. There are a total of 9 such covid 19 testing locations throughout King County, including those in Seattle. Due to an update in the covid 19 testing policy, each positive sample is also tested additionally to correctly determine the results and this limits the number of samples that can be handled due to the recent increase in the positive tests. Similar pressure is being faced by the testing facility in Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Medical Center because the omicron variant is causing a rapid surge in cases. They are also testing only those people who have symptoms of COVID-19. 

Other than that those patients are being tested who need a report before they can undergo surgery and university employees are being tested. This information has been given by Alan M. Wolf who is UNC Health director of news. Due to the surge in cases, hospitals, their staff, and patients are bearing overwhelming loads of cases of omicron. Although, almost seventy percent of the population of the USA is fully vaccinated still omicron is attacking them which is creating an environment of distress amongst the general public. Controlling such a situation is the need of an hour, said by governors and official representatives of the white house in their frequent online meetings with media houses and doctors are advising to create different lists of people to ensure that symptomatic people are taken in priority. People having mild symptoms are advised to take proper treatment as advised by their general physicians and follow all the covid protocols while quarantining. Also, covid testing kits should be made available to the ones in dire need and in comprising situations until companies increase their supply and meet the demand of the product, said the director of the health ministry. All these restrictions are being implemented to maintain a balance between the overwhelming demand and the limited supply and it is highly unlikely that the restrictions will be lifted anytime soon until the number of cases decreases. 


Nikki Attkisson

With over 15 years as a practicing journalist, Nikki Attkisson found herself at Powdersville Post now after working at several other publications. She is an award-winning journalist with an entrepreneurial spirit and worked as a journalist covering technology, innovation, environmental issues, politics, health etc. Nikki Attkisson has also worked on product development, content strategy, and editorial management for numerous media companies. She began her career at local news stations and worked as a reporter in national newspapers.

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