Officials: No, not every person who wants a COVID-19 test will get one yet

TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) — With the announcement of 10,000 new COVID-19 test kits being made available in Oklahoma, many are wondering if that means they can get tested.

State officials say the answer is a little yes and no.

“I wish at this junction we could test everyone who possibly thinks they need a test,” said Dr. Bruce Dart, with the Tulsa Health Department.

He said it’s not realistic for every person in Tulsa County (or elsewhere) to be tested for COVID-19 yet.

“We have a plan in place, we have pod sites we can set up all over the community where we can do that. That’s going to be decided by when supplies start coming in,” said Dart.

Supplies are starting to come in.

Gov. Kevin Stitt announced Thursday that 10,000 new testing kits will be available soon.

However, state health officials say folks will still have to meet some qualifications for getting tested.

“If you’re in Oklahoma County, Cleveland County, Tulsa County there we have evidence of community spread, those more populous urban centers, you’re more likely to come into contact by some point,” said Jerome Loughridge, the Secretary of Health.

Loughridge said they’ll focus on delivering more test kits to counties with community spread, areas with lots of nursing homes and places with lots of ICU beds.

“Certainly, the counties where they’ve experienced COVID-19 will be a priority, our ability to move those between a day within counties is pretty strong,” said Loughridge.

He said folks will still have to see a doctor and have the main symptoms of COVID-19.

Those symptoms are persistent fever (100.4 or higher), cough, and shortness of breath. Even then, he said it’s likely they’ll get a flu test first.

Loughridge said, though 80-85% of people will have mild symptoms, he expects thousands of Oklahomans to test positive for COVID-19 at some point.

“It could be end of April, it could be May,” said Loughridge. “It’s weeks and weeks away and by the time we get to the end of this, we will have thousands, it’s likely we’ll have tens of thousands, but it’s possible we’ll have hundreds of thousands of folks who’ve tested positive for this.”