Washington Orders 5.5 Million COVID-19 Tests As Demand Surges

OLYMPIA, WA — As the omicron variant of COVID-19 sweeps across Washington, residents are flocking to mass testing sites in droves— but many testing sites and other health care providers are struggling to keep up with the surge in demand.

Testing supply has been a growing problem across Puget Sound this holiday season. In King County, Executive Dow Constantine has announced plans to buy 700,000 additional COVID-19 tests to meet the rush. To the south, Pierce County has had such a spike in demand it had to open an additional mass testing site at the state fairgrounds, and shutter another site over crowding concerns.

To make sure there are enough tests to go around — and hopefully tamp down on this new wave of infections that threatens to overwhelm local hospitals — Gov. Jay Inslee announced on Wednesday that Washington had set aside $50 million to buy an additional 5.5 million rapid COVID-19 antigen tests. As of Wednesday, the governor said the state had just 800,000 tests on hand.

Of the 5.5 million incoming tests, 2 million are expected by the end of the week. 2 million more will arrive the week after. 1 million of the tests will go to local schools, a move Inslee said is necessary to keep children in the classroom.

"It is our firm and stalwart expectation that we will keep our schools open," Inslee said. "In-school education is more effective, and we've had too much learning opportunity loss already."

3.5 million more of the COVID-19 tests will go to a new Amazon-powered web portal, which will allow all Washingtonians to order free rapid tests delivered straight to their door. The governor did not have specifics on when the portal would go online, but promised it would launch sometime mid-month. When it does, all Washingtonians will be eligible to receive tests through the program.

Schools and community clinics across Washington will also be receiving 10 million masks over the coming few weeks. In the wake of omicron, the governor said, effective mask use is more important than ever before. The governor and state health leaders are also recommending that all Washingtonians upgrade from cloth facial coverings to more-protective KN96s, surgical masks, or double-masking.

"Wearing a mask is good, wearing a better mask is better," Inslee said.

The surge in COVID-19 testing comes as the more-transmissible omicron variant has torn through Washington state, now making up an estimated 75 percent of new COVID-19 cases. Though early studies indicate that most omicron cases are less severe than those caused by delta or other coronavirus strains, the sheer number of new infections have caused a 46 percent increase in hospital admissions across Washington.

"That's concerning, because our hospitals are already very taxed," Inslee said. "We are seeing more COVID cases now than at any point during the entire pandemic, and our hospitalizations are nearing the peak we experienced during the delta portion of this pandemic."

If the current case count and hospitalization trends continue, the governor warned, Washington could see some services interrupted or halted.

"We are likely to see some, we hope, temporary disruptions in some of our systems and services in the state," Inslee said. "I hope that is not the case, but it certainly something we've got to be prepared for."

While the state waits for the COVID-19 tests and masks to arrive, the governor and other health leaders are reminding everyone to continue following pandemic safety protocol by wearing a mask, avoiding public gatherings, practicing safe social distancing, and getting vaccinated or booster shots if they are eligible for either.

"Now is the time to redouble our efforts against this virus," Inslee said. "The tools we have used thus far are still effective, thankfully. Wearing a mask, getting vaccinated, getting boosted, avoiding unnecessary large gatherings where we can, these are things that still work."