FILE – On this Friday, July 17, 2020 file photograph, well being care staff take data from individuals in line at a walk-up COVID-19 testing website through the coronavirus pandemic in Miami Seashore, Fla. After months of struggling to ramp up coronavirus testing, the U.S. is now able to testing some 3 million individuals every day because of a rising provide of fast checks. However the testing increase comes with a brand new problem: holding observe of the outcomes.
FILE – On this July 14, 2020, file photograph, individuals wait in line for coronavirus testing at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. After months of struggling to ramp up coronavirus testing, the U.S. is now able to testing some 3 million individuals every day because of a rising provide of fast checks. However the testing increase comes with a brand new problem: holding observe of the outcomes.
FILE – This picture offered by Abbott Laboratories in August 2020 reveals the corporate’s BinaxNOW fast COVID-19 nasal swab check. After months of struggling to ramp up coronavirus testing, the U.S. is now able to testing some 3 million individuals every day because of a rising provide of fast checks. However the testing increase comes with a brand new problem: holding observe of the outcomes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — After struggling to ramp up coronavirus testing, the U.S. can now display screen a number of million individuals every day, because of a rising provide of fast checks. However the increase comes with a brand new problem: holding observe of the outcomes.
All U.S. testing websites are legally required to report their outcomes, optimistic and adverse, to public well being companies. However state well being officers say many fast checks are going unreported, which suggests some new COVID-19 infections is probably not counted.
And the scenario might worsen, specialists say. The federal authorities is delivery greater than 100 million of the latest fast checks to states to be used in public faculties, assisted dwelling facilities and different new testing websites.
“Colleges definitely don’t have the capability to report these checks,” stated Dr. Jeffrey Engel of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists. “If it’s achieved in any respect it’s probably going to be paper-based, very gradual and incomplete.”
Early within the outbreak, almost all U.S. testing relied on genetic checks that might solely be developed at high-tech laboratories. Even underneath one of the best circumstances, individuals needed to wait about two to 3 days to get outcomes. Consultants pushed for extra “point-of-care” fast testing that might be achieved in docs places of work, clinics and different websites to shortly discover people who find themselves contaminated, get them into quarantine and cease the unfold.
