A lack of testing swabs and sampling containers has become the latest problem expected to delay access in Oregon to 20,000 coronavirus tests promised by Gov. Kate Brown this week, a top aide told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Friday.

State officials have no idea when they’ll be able to tap coronavirus tests from Quest Diagnostics, said Nik Blosser, Brown’s chief of staff.

Quest only processes test samples at its laboratories, Blosser said. The company doesn’t provide the swabs and containers used to collect those samples from patients – and Oregon doesn’t have enough right now to increase its testing volume, Blosser said.

State officials said they’ve been told 4,000 swabs will arrive from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at an unknown date. Beyond that, they’re trying to get collection kits from private manufacturers but prospects aren’t great.

“We’re working really hard to figure out how to get more,” Blosser said, “but I don’t know where we’ll get them right now.”

He said Quest has reserved the capacity to analyze the samples once it gets them. “What they don’t have, and what they actually don’t produce, are these collection kits,” he said.

Blosser took responsibility for providing unclear information to the public earlier this week.

When the governor Wednesday touted the agreement with Quest, Blosser said Oregon should get the first 5,000 of the 20,000 test kits “any day now.”

But now, he said, “I’ll just admit, I should have gone into more detail. I should have understood it better.”

The predicament represents the latest challenge to increase testing capacity in Oregon amid a global pandemic that has infected more than 16,500 Americans and killed more than 200 nationwide. Testing is scarce across the country but is considered a front-line defense to help identify people who are infected, so they don’t spread the virus to others.

Oregon reported its first coronavirus case Feb. 28 but testing didn’t dramatically increase until the past seven days – as private labs and hospital systems joined the Oregon State Public Health Laboratory in processing tests. The increase has been stark, according to Blosser, jumping in new tests analyzed each week from about 125 to about 500 to more than 1,500.

“I’m glad it’s ramping up at this rate and hope we can keep it going,” said Blosser, who is spearheading Oregon’s efforts to increase testing capacity.

Of the roughly 2,100 tests completed to date, more than 40 percent were analyzed at a location other than the state health lab, officials disclosed Friday. So far, 115 Oregonians have tested positive for the new coronavirus.

Oregon hopes to eventually increase testing capacity to about 2,000 tests per week, a top state health official told lawmakers earlier this week.

But it remains highly uncertain when Quest will help Oregon reach that target while collection kit supplies are scarce.

The federal government notified Oregon in an email Thursday that it would receive 4,000 viral testing swabs “compliments of the Department of Health and Human Services.”

But Blosser said an aide called Friday seeking clarity about when those would arrive. She received none.

“They said we don’t know,” Blosser recounted. “And I said, ‘Can you give me something better, like days or weeks?’ And she said they didn’t give any timeframe.”

When those collection supplies arrive, however, they won’t necessarily be used to obtain patient samples that can be sent to Quest. Blosser said some would be kept for the Oregon Health Authority’s state lab and some would be directed to Quest, but he didn’t have details.

“I’m asking OHA for that exact clarity myself,” he said.

The allocation matters. The state is processing tests at its lab only for people it considers most at risk, while the Quest tests were to be allocated more broadly, including for first responders and health care workers with symptoms, Blosser said earlier this week.

The state eventually hopes to have clear, unified criteria for who is eligible for testing no matter which lab processes a sample, he said.

“Our goal is to align the criteria, so it’s one set of screening criteria across the hospital labs, the state lab and Quest,” he said.

Blosser said state officials on Friday also attempted to contact collection-kit manufacturers to secure supplies. They did so on the advice of federal officials, who provided a list of the companies a day earlier.

“The administration actually yesterday sent states a list of suppliers for swabs and said, ‘Good luck,” Blosser said during an earlier conference call with reporters. “Every state now is calling these poor four suppliers to see what we can get, and that’s really the limitation.”

Blosser told The Oregonian/OregonLive that officials put in an order with one of the suppliers but it’s been delayed by two to three weeks. Another company is facing a delay of up to eight weeks.

The final two “have zero available,” he said, “and can’t help.”

State officials say the Oregon Health Authority attempted to get collection-kit materials from companies before Thursday but could not immediately provide details.

If the state isn’t quickly able to obtain more collection kits, beyond the 4,000 from the federal government, that will further delay sending additional samples to Quest as part of the lab’s pledge to offer 20,000 tests for Oregonians.

Meanwhile, there was one bit of optimism on the testing front.

Providence Health & Services earlier this week became the first hospital system to begin processing coronavirus tests at its own lab, with the capacity to analyze samples for 500 to 600 of its patients each day.

On Friday, the hospital system opened two pilot drive-thru testing sites. For three hours, workers collected samples from 45 health care workers or patients who were referred by a doctor, spokesman Gary Walker said.

“For day one of a pilot,” he said, “it went really smooth.”

-- Brad Schmidt; bschmidt@oregonian.com; 503-294-7628: @_brad_schmidt