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Washington state received a shipment of what appeared to be regular Q-tips from the federal government for the purpose of coronavirus testing, but state health officials say the contents differ from the packaging. 

"The swabs arrived packaged in boxes that erroneously described them as 'cotton comfort swabs,'" read a statement from Washington's Joint Information Center on Saturday. "These swabs are actually spun polyester swabs, not cotton swabs, and are 'Q-tip style swabs' that according to the federal government can be used for coronavirus testing."

The state received 21,960 of these swabs, officials said. Because of the bulk packaging and seemingly common Q-tip labeling, state health officials asked for clarification on how to safely use these swabs.

"We received a memo describing a potential method for using these bulk swabs. The state is considering a variety of options for safe and sterile use of these bulk packaged swabs," continued the statement from state officials. 

According to that memo, individually wrapped sterile swabs are preferred "when possible," but bulk packaged swabs can also be used as long as extra precautions are taken to ensure none of the swabs become contaminated. 

"Ideally, an individual, prior to engaging with patients and while wearing a clean set of protective gloves, should pre-distribute individual swabs from the bulk container into individual disposable plastic bags," read the instructions from the memo. 

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The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) also issued a statement explaining the misleading packaging of the swabs:

“In an effort to answer our country's call to action and expedite the production and delivery of the new spun polyester swab, US Cotton used existing packaging for its polyester swabs, which does not accurately communicate the content of each package. Going forward, the spun polyester swab packaging will be blank.”

Washington also received a shipment of about 37,000 nasopharyngeal swabs in early May.

The state is supposed to receive a total of 580,000 swabs for coronavirus testing by the end of May through weekly shipments, according to officials. But so far, there have been numerous conflicting updates as to how many were due to arrive and when.

Officials say given that it’s halfway through the month they are “roughly 230,000 swabs short” of that 580,000 goal.

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