INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) — For weeks Indiana has been ramping up its testing, with the goal of reopening businesses. That includes a program to test an additional 100,000 Hoosiers each month.
13 Investigates shows us where Indiana is falling short and the plan to catch up.
In Indiana, COVID-19 testing has been a matter of the haves and the have nots with limited availability in rural communities.
According to the White House guide on reopening, statewide testing capacity is a must. Right now, Indiana falls short of the requirement with 99,600 people tested as of Friday May 1. That number amounts to nearly 1.5 percent of Indiana's population.
National experts have cautioned states against reopening too soon.
"You can't just leap over things and get into a situation where you're really attempting a rebound. That's the thing I get concerned about," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the outspoken infectious diseases expert who sits on the nation's Coronavirus Task Force.
The State Department of Health announced Tuesday it is paying an outside company $17.9 million to help Indiana catch up on testing.
"We have very strategically looked at the entire state of Indiana and decided where exactly we need to focus these places," explained Dr. Lindsay Weaver, the Chief Medical Officer at the Indiana State Department of Health.
Under the plan the Indiana National Guard would open up armories across the state as testing sites.
"This is the first time we've used the armories for a response like this. We train with our hazmat suits and what not on a pretty regular basis," said Lt. Col John Pitt.
The first 20 sites are set to launch Wednesday May 6 in Angola, Lafayette, Logansport, Richmond and Scottsburg to name a few of the sites. The Johnson County Armory in Franklin will also open its doors.
"We're isolating off a particular part of the armory where we're going to do testing and we're going to be contracting with a professional cleaning company to make sure that we sanitize and clean the areas where the testing will be conducted every single day," explained Lt. Col Pitt.
The testing will focus on those who show symptoms of the virus or who have been in contact with an infected person.
The state is hoping to test 100,000 people in the first 30 days.
It's efforts will help the state to buy time to get testing levels up and a new state contact tracing call center on line. The state must show it can identify, isolate and contain any future outbreaks.