Several weeks into the American COVID-19 outbreak, treatments have improved and one drug has been granted FDA approval. However, the first American COVID-19 fatality was a healthy 57-year-old woman who showed no symptoms. These improved treatments will be useless if people discover infections too late. Unlike the two-day incubation period of seasonal flu, COVID-19 has an asymptomatic incubation period of five to 14 days. The viral shedding peaks just before symptoms begin to show.
Below are some news mentions dating back to March 30 of the need to increase the amount of test kits in order to lift shelter-in-place restrictions. It appears the country is still very short on testing supplies. Most mentions below refer to diagnostic tests. Some mentions below refer to antibody tests, which general reports say are not yet reliable.
Where are the tests? Who makes these reagents that states and locales say they need more of? As of April 29, several states reported a shortage of test swabs.
Can the news media please stay on this story?
March 20 2020 Coronavirus Testing Chaos Across America wsj.com On Wednesday, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said its state lab was forced to temporarily stop processing tests because it ran out of the necessary supplies. Ms. Noem said they have been trying for weeks to get more of the chemicals used to process the tests from suppliers and had asked Vice President Mike Pence to help.
Shortages: Federal health officials have said in congressional testimony that they are aware there are possible shortages used in tests.
April 15 2020 California’s coronavirus reopening: Gavin Newsom’s six-point plan will alter daily life sfchronicle.com Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state health and human services secretary, said the state is working to expand testing so that anyone with symptoms — not just the sickest people already at hospitals — can be tested. Ghaly said he hopes California will test tens of thousands of people each day by the end of April. The state is now testing about 9,400 people a day.
Shortages:Doctors have complained about a shortage of tests and testing supplies like swabs and chemical reagents.
April 20 2020 One chart shows how many tests per capita have been completed in six countries. The U.S. has finally caught up. businessinsider.com Without adequate numbers of both test types, it’s challenging for public-health officials to grasp the scope of the outbreak’s spread or determine how deadly it is.
April 21 2020 Trump chides state leaders over testing sfchronicle.com President Trump accused Democrats on Monday of playing “a very dangerous political game” by insisting there is a shortage of tests for the coronavirus, and Vice President Mike Pence told governors the federal government is working around-the-clock to help them ramp up testing.
Shortages: The vice president sought to soften the Trump administration’s message with governors amid growing clamor from the states for a national testing strategy to help secure supplies like testing swabs and chemical reagents.
April 21 2020 Antibody tests’ limited value sfchronicle.com “There have been many tests out there for some time — probably before we even started seeing major numbers of cases in the Bay Area,” said Yvonne Maldonado, a Stanford infectious-disease expert. “We here at Stanford have been receiving some of these kits, and we decided to test them to see how well they worked. And some of them weren’t very good.”
April 23 2020 SF begins offering free coronavirus tests to all essential workers sfchronicle.com Starting Wednesday, any essential worker in the public or private sector — from frontline health care workers to grocery store clerks and restaurant cooks — will have access to a COVID-19 test if they exhibit symptoms of the disease, like a fever, cough or shortness of breath.
April 23 2020 To reopen, California must test at least 60,000 people daily for coronavirus — up from 16,000 sfchronicle.com If labs had enough equipment and could operate at “100% full throttle,” California could conduct 95,000 tests a day. Newsom said.
Shortages: More than half of the existing test sites said in a state survey that their biggest roadblock to expansion is that they lack enough swabs, which are used to collect nasal and throat specimens. Newsom said President Trump has committed to providing 100,000 swabs to California this week, 250,000 swabs next week and more the week after that.
April 27 2020 Many states short of testing levels needed to reopen statnews.com In a briefing last Thursday, President Trump said he disagreed with comments by Anthony Fauci, the top government infectious disease expert, that “we are not there yet” with the number of tests and the capacity to perform them.
April 27 2020 White House Claims Most Testing Groundwork Done cnbc.com Monday’s new documents underscore the limited role Trump wants the federal government to take in expanding testing, despite their repeated mentions of “partnering” with states. As several states formally begin reopening this week, the ongoing lack of testing capabilities is one of the key factors keeping many families, employers and institutions from resuming business as usual, even though stay-at-home orders have officially been lifted.
April 28 2020 Trump Says U.S. Will Run 5 Million Daily Virus Tests ‘Very Soon.’ His Testing Chief Says That’s Impossible time.com President Donald Trump declared Tuesday that the U.S. will be able to carry out five million coronavirus tests per day, but the top official overseeing testing strategy told TIME earlier in the day that goal wasn’t feasible given current technology.
April 29 2020 Trump downplays need for testing in another whiplash contradiction cnn.com On Monday, President Donald Trump instructed states to “maximize the use of all available testing platforms and venues” as they begin to plan their reemergence from coronavirus lockdown. On Wednesday, he downplayed the edict and mused that maybe blanket testing wasn’t necessary as states move to reopen.
April 29 2020 COVID-19 testing lags in Penssylvania as federal government promises help post-gazette.com The reasons are the same ones that testing is lagging in other states — demand for chemicals and related equipment used in analysis is outstripping supplies.
April 29 2020 Inslee Says it’s Too Early to Halt Stay Home Order yelmontonline.com On testing capacity, Inslee pointed to data showing a statewide capacity of more than 22,000 tests daily save for a crucial lacking element — testing swabs and transport media to send samples to labs. Given the lack of swabs and media, only 4,650 tests could be analyzed daily, Inslee said.Inslee said the state had “scoured the globe” for needed testing material, adding Washington has continually asked the federal government to use the Defense Production Act to require industries to manufacture those supplies.
April 29 2020 Gov. Murphy to Meet with Trump at White House in the midst of the coronovirus crisis nj.com.com Murphy says New Jersey — one of the nation’s coronavirus hotspots — needs to at least double testing as one of the conditions to gradually lift the unprecedented stay-at-home and business-closing orders he placed on the state last month to help slow the virus’ spread. The governor has repeatedly said the state needs help from the federal government to expand testing.
April 30 2020 Navy orders ‘deeper review’ of carrier captain’s case sfchronicle.com Testing throughout the military continues to lag, Speier and others wrote.
April 30 2020 Fact check: Hilton CEO shatters Trump’s testing conspiracy theory while sitting beside him cnn.com When a reporter asked Wednesday if any of the executives present were worried people won’t really come back to their businesses until there is a coronavirus vaccine, Nassetta spoke up — and used the word “testing” three times.
April 30 2020 Capitol physician says Senate lacks capacity to test all senators politico.com In a conference call with top GOP officials, Dr. Brian Monahan said there is not sufficient capacity to quickly test senators for coronavirus — a contrast with the White House, where any people meeting with President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are tested for the disease. Monahan said test results in the Senate will take two or more days, while the White House has rapid testing.
May 1 2020 Antibody tests for coronavirus hold promise, but they’re not yet reliable enough shicago.suntimes.com And a recent examination by some of the nation’s top scientists found unacceptably high rates of false positives in some antibody tests, calling into question their usefulness.
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As anyone can see, it is not just health experts who advocate for wide-scale testing availability. Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta mentioned testing just three days ago as a prerequisite for an economic rebound.
Where are the tests? Who is tracking this?
