The cars began lining up early Tuesday morning in Birmingham as hundreds of people waited for a coronavirus test at Jefferson County’s only drive-through testing clinic. The clinic had been moved that morning to the Church of the Highlands’ larger Grandview campus in Birmingham, but it quickly became overwhelmed. Officials shut down the clinic within two hours, as the line of cars stretched for more than a mile down U.S. 280 and blocked nearby hospital traffic.

Assistant Pastor Layne Schranz said the testing site had hit capacity – “thousands too many” – before it even opened.

Coronavirus testing is off to a rocky start in Alabama due to a shortage of testing kits that’s hampering testing efforts nationwide. State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris announced Tuesday morning that the state currently has six testing sites open, although one of those appeared to be the Jefferson County site that abruptly shut down.

Harris said he hoped another 5-10 sites would open by the end of the week, but the barrier to that “has been being able to obtain supplies like personal protective equipment, swabs for testing and the like.

“We have a particularly acute issue in our state, as do most states right now, with obtaining specimen swabs” needed to test people for coronavirus," he said.

Staff at one rural medical center in Bibb County, while explaining their preparedness to Al.com, said they had materials to test only two patients.

The entire country is clamoring for coronavirus testing supplies that are hard to find, at least for the average person. And because the federal government was slow to allow private sector coronavirus tests, the United States has been able to test far fewer people than countries like South Korea.

Most Alabamians who have symptoms don’t have a way to get tested other than showing up at their local emergency rooms, something public health officials have warned against. At the few clinics open for testing, long lines and high demand dwarf the clinics’ capacity.

In Birmingham, the drive-thru clinic operated by the Church of the Highlands’ medical ministry once again reached capacity of 500 patients on Wednesday before the clinic opened.

In Montgomery, a hotline run by Baptist Health took 680 calls on Monday. Its clinic was able to schedule 65 drive-up appointments and tested about 20 people who met testing criteria. Baptist Health CEO Russ Tyner said Monday that the clinic had about 180 test kits.

In Lee County, the East Alabama Medical Center’s hotline has fielded more than 1,000 calls since Friday and some calls aren’t making it through due to volume, said the hospital’s marketing director, John Atkinson.

The hospital operates a drive-thru coronavirus collection clinic by appointment only at nearby HealthPlus. All 40 time slots were filled Monday and all 60 spots were filled Tuesday, Atkinson said.

In Huntsville, plans for a drive-thru testing clinic were scuppered this week after Huntsville Hospital officials said they couldn’t get enough tests to meet expected demand.

“We’re having an issue with lab vendors’ ability to consistently supply test kits,” said David Spillers, CEO of Huntsville Hospital System, in a press conference Tuesday afternoon.

“None of us want to open up a drive-thru only to find out we’ve got 50 test kits, because more people than that may show up.”

He said the hospital system wants to have a minimum of 200 test kits per day available before opening a drive-thru clinic.

On Wednesday, Pam Hudson, CEO of Crestwood Medical Center in Huntsville, said the lack of testing kits has been the biggest barrier to her hospital getting a testing clinic up and running.

"It’s important to note that the limiting step is the availability of the test kits and the ability to get tests run so we get back timely results,” she said. “We will be required to have some sort of physician order or healthcare provider order in order to get the tests. It won't be up to your discretion and we certainly don't want to use any test kits on folks that are asymptomatic."

Hudson said there were “lessons learned” for Huntsville officials from watching the long lines and high demand at the Birmingham drive-thru clinic.

Alabama labs offer testing kits

But help may be on the way. Two Alabama-based labs joined the fray this week, rolling out their own test kits.

Huntsville-based lab Diatherix announced Tuesday that it has developed a one-day test kit for the virus that can be ordered by physicians. The company is based at Huntsville’s HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology.

Spillers said Huntsville Hospital has been in contact with Diatherix about possibly using the tests, and Madison County Commission Chair Dale Strong touted the lab’s capabilities in a press conference Wednesday.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Department of Pathology has been collaborating with Children’s of Alabama to develop its own coronavirus test in response to the nationwide scarcity.

“This test should be available by the end of the week and will allow us to begin processing 100 tests per day,” said Sixto Leal, assistant professor at UAB Pathology, who is leading the effort.

The tests will first be available just for patients at UAB hospital, but Leal said he hopes that within three to four weeks his lab will be able to run 800 tests per day, opening it up to other physicians or clinics.