Santa Rosa pharmacies struggling to keep at-home COVID-19 tests on shelves

Sonoma County pharmacies are having a hard time keeping at-home COVID-19 rapid antigen test kits on the shelves as a crush of people seek to test themselves before traveling or visiting family for Christmas.

Big chain pharmacies around Santa Rosa were largely sold out of the at-home test kits, of which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved 11, on Thursday. Meanwhile, the pharmacy managers of two locally-owned pharmacies on Christmas Eve reported the limited numbers of tests they were able to secure from distributors were not staying on shelves long.

People should call around to pharmacies before traveling to one to save time, Dr. Panna Lossy, the medical director of advocacy organization IsoCare Network, said. Pharmacies are getting tests in at different times of the day and on different days, she said.

Tuttle’s Doyle Park Pharmacy last secured at-home tests Dec. 15, manager Debbie Ling said, when she received thirteen out of the 25 she was supposed to be allotted. The tests were gone within 90 minutes, she said.

“How the word can spread so quickly I have no idea,” she said. The pharmacy is closed on Christmas, Ling said, but she does not anticipate receiving new tests until Monday or Tuesday.

The rush on the tests mostly began this week, she said.

Throughout the pandemic, infectious disease experts have encouraged the use of rapid antigen tests to help combat COVID-19.

Unlike polymerase chain reaction (or PCR) tests, the mainstay of COVID-19 diagnostic testing, antigen tests can be used at home and will produce test results in 15 to 30 minutes. Though they are not as sensitive as PCR tests, antigen tests are good at detecting larger viral loads.

“Every third or fourth phone call we took yesterday and the day before have been nothing but asking us if we’ve got them,” Ling said. “We feel terrible because we don’t know where to send them.”

Ling has chosen not to order tests that are more expensive.

At Forestville Pharmacy, manager Mark Olson is paying, and charging, a little more in an attempt to keep tests in stock. He’s selling the BinaxNOW kit, for $34.50 and the QuickVue tests for $39.50, around $10 more than each test goes for online.

Olson’s pharmacy is allocated 50 kits a week by wholesalers, he said. “We had some yesterday they went quick,” he said Friday. The pharmacy was set to receive more at 11 a.m.

The shortage of take home tests is nationwide, according to news reports. Earlier this week, the federal government announced a program to ship 500 million at-home test kits to any household that wants one, though the program will not begin until January.

In Sonoma County, a coalition of local health advocates was distributing more than 100,000 rapid tests to disadvantaged Latino and low-income families. Such families have suffered disproportionately during the pandemic, and officials hoped to blunt the impact of another winter surge of COVID-19. The tests were distributed through various churches, food banks and aid groups.

Those tests have all been distributed, Lossy with IsoCare Network, said. Lossy recommended ordering tests online to prepare for the COVID-19 surge that is likely to strike in the coming weeks.

In a press release Friday, Mendocino County Public Health announced it was distributing free tests through community groups in Ukiah, Willits and Fort Bragg. Interested residents can call 707-472-2759 for information.

You can reach Staff Writer Andrew Graham at 707-526-8667 or andrew.graham@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @AndrewGraham88