Manatee County is behind in COVID-19 testing. A huge boost in kits looks to change that
More specimen collection kits that test for COVID-19 are coming to Manatee County, which could allow officials to start another drive-thru testing site later this week, according to Public Safety Director Jake Saur.
The gift of 300 kits is being provided by the Florida Division of Emergency Management. State officials reached out to Saur shortly after local officials put in a call to Senate President Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton.
Even more testing will come to Manatee thanks to the Board of County Commissioners’ unanimous approval of up to $100,000 to purchase coronavirus testing kits and personal protective equipment. That money could buy as many as 2,000 kits, according to county estimates.
This surge in testing kits comes nearly two months after Manatee County’s first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus. Since then, more than 2,700 people have been tested, but those numbers pale in comparison to neighboring counties.
In Sarasota County, over 3,600 have been tested for the virus, and there were 296 positive cases. More than 10,600 have been tested in Pinellas County, where 611 positive cases have been reported.
As of Tuesday morning, 437 patients had tested positive and 34 have died from COVID-19 in Manatee. That was the fourth-highest number of deaths among Florida’s 67 counties.
Manatee briefly operated a drive-thru testing site at the Bradenton Area Convention Center at the end of March, using 200 tests provided by the state.
But the county still hasn’t tested enough of the population to have a clear understanding of how many cases there actually are in the area. Statewide, about 1 percent of the population has been tested. Manatee lags behind that figure, having tested about two-thirds of 1 percent of the county’s population.
“If you look to the experts, we need to be at around 10 percent. We want somewhere around 46,000 tests, but we’re nowhere near that,” Saur said.
Several commissioners expressed concern about Manatee’s lack of available testing, which has been the case for weeks.
“Obviously we haven’t gotten our fair share,” Commissioner Stephen Jonsson said. “We need to say that compared to the rest of the state, Manatee County ain’t looking so good. Let’s put the pressure on the people making those decisions in Washington and Tallahassee.”
“We’ve been told these tests are available, but it doesn’t seem to be reality. We have to deal in reality,” Commissioner Betsy Benac added. “When we come in right after Broward, we come in right after Palm Beach, clearly we need some attention.”
Reached for comment Tuesday afternoon, Galvano, who sits on DeSantis’ Re-Open Florida Task Force told the Bradenton Herald that a broad approach won’t work for every part of the state.
“Florida is a very diverse state and Governor DeSantis made it clear early on that a one-size-fits-all approach does not work here, and I agree. I support local leaders making decisions based on the conditions in their communities. Manatee County is in a different situation than Broward or Miami-Dade, just like Florida as a whole is different than New York,” Galvano said in a prepared statement.
“In my view, a measured, fact-based approach has served our state and local communities well. The next step is to use that same balanced approach to focus on reopening our state, keeping public safety as our top priority,” he continued.
However, between the county’s purchase of testing kits and the 300 specimen collection kits provided by the state, the county should finally have enough tests to reach their short-term goal of 1 percent tested. The additional testing could also help drive down the percentage of residents who test positive.
In Manatee, 16.2 percent of patients tested have been positive. That’s another figure that’s much higher than neighboring counties. Sarasota, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties’ percentage of positive tests are all less than 9 percent.
“We want to get down to the 13 percent rate or below and sustain that for a number of days,” said County Administrator Cheri Coryea. “These are alarming concerns as a county.”
County officials say they may begin drive-thru testing sometime this weekend. Additional details will be announced in the coming days.
This story was originally published April 21, 2020 at 4:14 PM.
