According to an ABC News report published last week, some 17 million tests — including some earmarked by the California Department of Public Health for schools, nursing homes, homeless shelters and childcare centers – have been sitting backlogged on giant pallets for days.
The impacted tests are some of the test kits produced by iHealth, which are manufactured in China and have been purchased by at least 15 states.
As of Thursday, the distribution company that handles the iHealth shipments from China, XChange Logistics, had worked through the millions of backlogged tests, only to face delays on three of iHealth’s charter planes carrying roughly 25 million tests, the company told ABC News.
At the same time, the distribution company said it’s still sending out 20 truckloads of tests per day from its Los Angeles warehouse.
XChange Logistics said their warehouses were struggling at 200-300% over capacity last week.
Plus, the company’s general manager told ABC News that over the past month, up to 30% of XChange Logistics’ workforce has been out with COVID.
iHealth said the Biden administration had stepped up its efforts to help the company, which has now also contracted with the government to supply 250 million tests to the president’s efforts to give out 1 billion free tests to the public.
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