Laboratories across the U.S. are buckling under a surge of coronavirus tests, creating long processing delays that experts say are actually undercutting the pandemic response. The testing lags in the U.S. come as the number of people confirmed to be infected globally passed a staggering 15 million on Wednesday.
SHARE
"There's been this obsession with, `How many tests are we doing per day?"' said Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "The question is how many tests are being done with results coming back within a day, where the individual tested is promptly isolated and their contacts are promptly warned."
"It's clogging up the system," Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant health secretary, told reporters last week.The 30-year-old waiter from Columbus, Ohio, was sent home from work on July 5 with a high fever a few days after he began feeling ill. He went for a test five days later at the request of his employer.
Test results that come back after two or three days are nearly worthless, many health experts say, because by then the window for tracing the persons' contacts to prevent additional infections has essentially closed. Quest has urged health care providers to cut down on tests from low-priority individuals, such as those without symptoms or any contact with someone who has tested positive.
Health experts assembled by the Rockefeller Foundation said last week that the U.S. should scale up to testing 30 million Americans per week by the fall, when school reopenings and flu season are expected to further exacerbate the virus' spread. The group acknowledged that will not be possible with the current laboratory-based testing system.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
U.S. labs struggling to keep up with surge in coronavirus testingLaboratories across the U.S. are buckling under a surge of coronavirus tests, creating long processing delays that experts say are actually undercutting the pandemic response.
Read more »
Coronavirus cases in California top 409,000, surpassing New York State for most in U.S.U.S. government data published Tuesday found that reported and confirmed coronavirus cases vastly underestimate the true number of infections, echoing results from a smaller study last month
Read more »
Asian shares turn lower as virus caseloads surgeShares were mostly lower in Asia on Wednesday, as governments in the region reported surging numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases.
Read more »
America's economic rebound may already be over as 'thick fog of uncertainty' clouds outlookA rise in coronavirus cases in the most populous U.S. states is halting consumer and business activity
Read more »