Showing symptoms similar to those that present for the novel coronavirus doesn’t automatically result in health care officials testing for the disease in Washington and Idaho.

Brady Woodbury, public health administrator for Asotin County, said the state health department has an established criteria to determine when to test for COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus.

As of Wednesday, no one in Asotin County had been tested for the virus, Woodbury said, nor has anyone reached the point of being a person under investigation for COVID-19. Likewise, no one has been tested or under investigation for the disease in Whitman County, said Whitman County public health administrator Troy Henderson.

“We do have a few folks who don’t feel real good and may have some kind of tenuous (connection to the disease) like a cousin who traveled to Seattle,” Henderson said. “We have investigated those and we talked to those folks, but we do not have anybody currently today that meets the definition of a person under investigation.”

A patient at Pullman Regional Hospital was suspected to have the virus Wednesday but did not meet testing criteria, said Megan Guido, spokeswoman for the hospital.

The Washington State Department of Health website, doh.wa.gov, includes an assessment criteria that health care professionals follow to determine whether to seek testing for the virus.

Included in the evaluation check list is:

A) Did/does the patient have a fever?

B) Does the patient have symptoms of lower respiratory illness (cough or shortness of breath)?

C) Does the patient require hospitalization for severe lower respiratory illness?

D) Has the patient tested negative for other common respiratory pathogens, such as influenza?

E) In the 14 days before symptom onset, did the patient have close contact with a lab-confirmed COVID-19 patient? Has the patient traveled from one of five geographic affected areas: China, Iran, South Korea, Italy or Japan?

If an established combination of the assessment criteria is met by local health care professionals, the individual is listed as a person under investigation. From there, the local health care professional contacts their county health department, which in turn contacts the state health department and confirms the need for oral and nasal swabs to be taken and sent to the state lab for testing. If, however, the patient does not meet the established criteria but there is a “high index of clinical suspicion,” the health care provider is encouraged to contact the local health jurisdiction and push for testing, according to the state website.

Woodbury said it can take anywhere from 24 to 72 hours for the Washington state lab to process samples.

He noted the reason all patients aren’t automatically tested is to ensure the state lab isn’t overwhelmed with cases that can be ruled out following the more traditional methods.

“Portions of western Washington are already overwhelming the system,” Woodbury said.

Henderson said testing capacity could increase in the future.

“We are hoping private labs come on board and are able to process these samples sooner rather than later,” he said.

The University of Washington is processing tests for the disease without having to satisfy the state’s criteria, Henderson said.

Idaho has virtually the same testing criteria, said Mike Larson, a nurse at the Public Health District for north central Idaho, and just like in Washington, Idaho’s protocol is designed to preserve both the capacity of the lab to process tests and to make sure testing supplies at the Idaho State Lab are not exhausted. As those supplies increase or other labs are able to process the tests, Larson said some of the testing criteria is likely to be loosened.

“As soon as the test is more widely available, it will be easier to do and more accessible and we will probably be able to take some of those middle steps out of there, but for right now that is the process,” Larson said.

As of Wednesday, the state of Washington has 39 confirmed cases and 10 deaths associated with COVID-19. There are no confirmed cases in Idaho.

Clohessy may be contacted at cclohessy@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2251. Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.