Ouray County has suspended COVID-19 testing for people without symptoms after an announcement from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment about disconthe use of Curative tests.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has raised “concerns about the accuracy of the Curative assay and collection methods,” CDPHE said in a news release. The state immediately stopped using the tests in congregate living settings, including nursing homes and correctional facilities.

Ouray County has been using oral swabs in Curative test kits since November, and while the lab generally provided results with shorter turnaround times than state testing labs, the tests carry a higher risk of false negatives than previously realized. Statewide, almost i,000 congregate care sites were using the Curative tests for up to 70,000 tests per week, CDPHE said.

The FDA said earlier this month that for accuracy, the tests should only be used for “symptomatic individuals within 14 days of COVID-19 symptom onset.” Specimen collection using the swabs must be supervised, and any negative result from an oral swab test must be confirmed with another type of test, the agency said.

CDPHE’s guidance instructed community testing sites like Ouray County’s to only use the Curative tests for symptomatic people, and to only use nasal swabs, instead of oral swabs. “If an individual is asymptomatic, we advise that they seek testing at a non-Curative site,” CDPHE said. “The state does expect it will transition away from Curative testing at community testing sites, as well, in the coming weeks.”

The announcement has forced Ouray County to temporarily stop testing while they developed a new procedure for test registration. Previously, anyone who wanted a test could register on the Curative website, including people without symptoms who want a test before or after traveling or for other discretionary reasons.

Now, people need to call the Public Health Agency to schedule tests, Director Tanner Kingery said. Currently, those calls are being routed to Public Health Nurse Rebekah Stewart, who is individually screening people for symptoms and scheduling their tests.

“That’s going to get overwhelming, but we’re going to have to do that until we get more people to help over the phone,” he said

Kingery said the state has indicated another lab for asymptomatic testing will be available soon, but for now, people looking for testing can make appointments in Mesa County or at Walgreens in Montrose.

They’re still determining how to test people who are close contacts of positive cases but aren’t symptomatic, he said. They need to be testing to be allowed to end quarantine.

CDPHE also said people who have been tested with Curative oral swabs since Jan. 13 and received a negative result should be tested a second time with a nasal swab to ensure they have accurate results.

Liz Teitz is a journalist with Report for America, a nonprofit program focused on supporting journalism in underserved areas. Email erin@ouraynews.com to make a tax-deductible donation to support her work.