As COVID-19 infections drop in California and across the U.S., fewer people are getting tested.
Just five states are performing coronavirus tests at a higher rate this week compared to last week, according to data released early Wednesday morning by Johns Hopkins University. Seven states and the District of Columbia, meanwhile, aren't reporting enough data to provide a testing rate.
That doesn't mean testing is any less important than it was in different stages of the pandemic, UC Irvine epidemiologist and demographer Andrew Noymer told KCBS Radio’s Megan Goldsby during an interview on Wednesday afternoon.
“It's just that people are less interested in doing it, and it causes problems for us to understand the ongoing data," he said.
Noymer said wastewater data can provide meaningful information about potential waves, but tests at doctor's offices and at-home tests – the latter of which are often underreported to public health agencies – can't stand in for regular testing.
Declines in testing and positivity coincide with the loosening, or outright abandonment, of COVID-19 mitigation measures like mask and proof of vaccination requirements across the country. The Transportation Security Administration’s mask mandate for travelers could, for instance, end in fewer than two weeks.
Politicians, the press and public health officials have often discussed COVID-19 moving into an endemic phase, but Noymer said that’s not one in which people can keep their guard down. The virus and its variants remain highly infectious, and infection remains risky for senior citizens, people with compromised immune systems and the unvaccinated.
"We haven't seen the last of COVID," Noymer said. "It remains to be seen whether omicron BA.2 will cause a major wave, but I can guarantee to KCBS listeners that there will be another variant, at some point in the future, that will cause another wave."
Noymer said the next wave might not come until next winter, and continued testing is important to prepare for what’s to come. He noted that Americans "are definitely kind of over" the pandemic, endemicity means COVID-19 will come and go "kind of in constant cycles."
California is on a downswing now, but Noymer said that neither the state nor the rest of the country can afford to relax its testing approach when the next wave hits. As some testing sites close, he advised individuals to take advantage of available tests from the federal government of their health insurance provider.
"Whenever you're meeting with someone who you haven't seen in a while, particularly if that person is a senior citizen or that person visits a senior citizen, we should be testing regularly," he said.
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