NEW ORLEANS — Fewer COVID-19 tests are available for community testing in New Orleans this week, but this isn't just happening locally.
"This is not what we want, this is not what the city of New Orleans wants," said New Orleans Health Director Dr. Jennifer Avegno.
Before the New Orleans community COVID-19 testing site at Dillard opened Monday morning, more than 100 people were already lined up to get tested. There will be 150 tests available at each New Orleans community testing site each day.
"By 8:05 (a.m.), we had given out our 150 tickets for tests, so we were done in 5 minutes basically," Avegno said.
The city and hospitals are scaling back on COVID-19 tests because of supply chain issues including a raw material shortage for the machines used to process tests.
"Labs themselves are taking longer to process tests because of the shortages," Avegno said.
"Testing demand continues to outclass the supply," said Dr. Alexander Billioux with the Louisiana Dept. of Health.
According to both health officials, this is not just a local or state issue, but it's happening across the country. Labs are overwhelmed as cases surge.
"Now where were seeing a crunch is on the actual processing of those samples when they get to the lab," Billioux said.
Testing is still open to anyone, but at least for now, Avegno suggests only getting tested if you've been exposed or have symptoms.
"If you don't really need a test, maybe take this week off. Let us get our supply chain back up to normal save those tests for someone who may be symptomatic or their roommate tested positive for example," Avegno said.
While hospital and ICU capacity is robust, according to Avegno, hospitalizations are rising.
"I'm worried this might be the tip of the iceberg," she said.
It's unclear how long this decrease in testing could last, but both city and state health officials are working with testing suppliers and the federal government to try and get the testing capacity back up quickly.
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.