US labs buckle amid testing surge; world virus cases top 15M
4 years, 5 months ago

US labs buckle amid testing surge; world virus cases top 15M

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — Laboratories across the U.S. are buckling under a surge of coronavirus tests, creating long processing delays that experts say are undercutting the pandemic response. “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.” Frieden and other public health experts have called on states to publicly report testing turnaround times, calling it an essential metric to measure progress against the virus. “If that person is not quarantined in that 7-10 days, are they spreading without realizing it?” 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 person’s contacts to prevent additional infections has essentially closed. Dr. Leana Wen, a public health professor at George Washington University said it’s reasonable to tell people awaiting test results to isolate for 24 hours, but the delays have been unacceptable. 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’s spread.

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History of this topic

Ramp up Covid testing to stay alert: Centre to states
1 year, 9 months ago

Ramp up Covid testing to stay alert: Centre to states

Hindustan Times  

The Union government on Saturday directed states to increase testing for Covid-19 as per the World Health Organization’s guidelines to effectively check any increase in its spread, people familiar with the matter said. “In the past several weeks, in some states Covid-19 testing has declined and the current testing levels are insufficient as compared to the standards prescribed by WHO,” …

New hurdle for COVID-19 home testing -- the holiday season
3 years, 1 month ago

New hurdle for COVID-19 home testing -- the holiday season

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — Millions more home tests for COVID-19 are hitting store shelves, but will there be enough for Americans hoping to screen themselves before holiday gatherings? White House officials say the U.S. is on pace to have about 200 million home tests per month by December, quadrupling the number from this summer. Market leader Abbott says it is back to …

A Rush On Coronavirus Testing Strains Laboratories, Drives Supply Shortages
4 years, 1 month ago

A Rush On Coronavirus Testing Strains Laboratories, Drives Supply Shortages

NPR  

A Rush On Coronavirus Testing Strains Laboratories, Drives Supply Shortages Enlarge this image toggle caption David McNew/Getty Images David McNew/Getty Images With the pandemic out of control in the United States, the nation's precarious coronavirus testing system is starting to strain again. Sponsor Message Despite the federal government's continued efforts to ship millions of swabs and vials and other testing …

Millions More Virus Rapid Tests, But Are Results Reported?
4 years, 2 months ago

Millions More Virus Rapid Tests, But Are Results Reported?

News 18  

After struggling to ramp up coronavirus testing, the U.S. can now screen several million people daily, thanks to a growing supply of rapid tests. But state health officials say many rapid tests are going unreported, which means some new COVID-19 infections may not be counted. The federal government is shipping more than 100 million of the newest rapid tests to …

In China's Qingdao, authorities check over 3 mn swabs for COVID-19 in two days after minor outbreak
4 years, 2 months ago

In China's Qingdao, authorities check over 3 mn swabs for COVID-19 in two days after minor outbreak

Firstpost  

The move to conduct tests of around 9.4 million population within five days comes after the detection of a dozen cases linked to a hospital on Sunday Beijing: More than three million swabs have been taken in a matter of days in Qingdao, the Chinese port city where a minor coronavirus outbreak elicited a sweeping health response. Following country’s first …

Covid testing capacity expanded to 51,000 tests per day; Health services not ready
4 years, 3 months ago

Covid testing capacity expanded to 51,000 tests per day; Health services not ready

NL Times  

Laboratory capacity in the Netherlands has been expanded. The labs now have sufficient test materials to perform over 51 thousand Covid-19 tests per day, an increase of 20 thousand tests per day compared to last week. The aim is as quickly as possible, but it is a mega operation," a spokesperson for GGD GHOR Nederland, the umbrella organization for the …

WHO to roll out 120 million rapid COVID-19 tests that promises result 'in minutes' for poorer countries
4 years, 3 months ago

WHO to roll out 120 million rapid COVID-19 tests that promises result 'in minutes' for poorer countries

Firstpost  

Rolling out quicker testing in poorer countries aims to help health care workers get a better grip on where the coronavirus is circulating, in hopes of following up with containment and other measures to stop it The World Health Organization announced on 28 September that it and leading partners have agreed to a plan to roll out 120 million rapid-diagnostic …

Coronavirus test? The appointment book is full at most drive in centres
4 years, 3 months ago

Coronavirus test? The appointment book is full at most drive in centres

Dutch News  

In total, 86 of the 100 coronavirus test centres in the Netherlands have no space for new appointments, as an increasing number of people queue up to get tested, the central public health board said on Thursday afternoon. Just four locations have sufficient availability in the coming 48 hours and a further 10 are virtually fully booked, the GGD is …

US coronavirus: Confirmed cases don’t show the ‘total burden’ of the pandemic, study says
4 years, 4 months ago

US coronavirus: Confirmed cases don’t show the ‘total burden’ of the pandemic, study says

CNN  

CNN — The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the US were greatly undercounted, mostly because of a lack of testing, a new study shows. Researchers at the University of California Berkeley School of Public Health suggest the case tally in the US does not “capture the total burden of the pandemic because testing has been primarily restricted to individuals …

Most US states reject Trump administration's new Covid-19 testing guidance
4 years, 4 months ago

Most US states reject Trump administration's new Covid-19 testing guidance

India Today  

A majority of US states have rejected new Trump administration Covid-19 testing guidance in an extraordinary rebuke of the nation's top agency for disease prevention, according to officials at state health agencies and public statements reviewed by Reuters. The CDC said on Monday that people exposed to Covid-19 but not symptomatic "do not necessarily need a test unless you are …

Are these fast, cheap coronavirus tests the game-changer everyone is waiting for?
4 years, 4 months ago

Are these fast, cheap coronavirus tests the game-changer everyone is waiting for?

CNN  

CNN — Move over, slowpoke coronavirus tests that take a week or more to return a result – there’s a new generation of rapid tests coming to town – some are already here – and they’re poised to transform the landscape. Compared to the most commonly used type of coronavirus test in the country – molecular diagnostic tests, also called …

Britain to bring in mass testing to curb spread of COVID-19
4 years, 4 months ago

Britain to bring in mass testing to curb spread of COVID-19

India Today  

Britain plans to bring in regular, population-wide testing for COVID-19 so it can suppress the spread of the virus and limit restrictions that have crippled one of the worst-hit countries in the world. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the government was trialing a range of new, faster tests that can give instant results and hoped to roll them out towards …

Virus testing in the US is dropping, even as deaths mount
4 years, 5 months ago

Virus testing in the US is dropping, even as deaths mount

Associated Press  

U.S. testing for the coronavirus is dropping even as infections remain high and the death toll rises by more than 1,000 a day, a worrisome trend that officials attribute largely to Americans getting discouraged over having to wait hours to get a test and days or weeks to learn the results. Testing delays have led researchers at Harvard and elsewhere …

Britain to Roll Out Millions of 90-minute Coronavirus Tests to Boost Capacity
4 years, 5 months ago

Britain to Roll Out Millions of 90-minute Coronavirus Tests to Boost Capacity

News 18  

Millions of COVID-19 tests able to detect the virus within 90 minutes will be rolled out to British hospitals, care homes and laboratories to boost capacity in the coming months, the country’s health minister said on Monday. “The fact these tests can detect flu, as well as COVID-19, will be hugely beneficial as we head into winter, so patients can …

The US Has More Covid-19 Testing Than Most. So Why is it Falling so Short?
4 years, 5 months ago

The US Has More Covid-19 Testing Than Most. So Why is it Falling so Short?

News 18  

The United States might have more COVID-19 testing capacity than any other country. Gary Procop, who helps lead the Cleveland Clinic's labs, said the government could have used the Defense Production Act to scale up multi-step tests, using existing instructions from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For states seeking to boost testing capacity, the most sought-after machine has …

US health officials estimate 20M Americans have had virus
4 years, 6 months ago

US health officials estimate 20M Americans have had virus

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — U.S. officials estimate that 20 million Americans have been infected with the coronavirus since it first arrived in the United States, meaning that the vast majority of the population remains susceptible. “Our best estimate right now is that for every case that was reported, there actually are 10 more infections.” Previously, CDC officials and the nation’s top infectious-disease …

Virus testing, tracking still plagued by reporting delays
4 years, 6 months ago

Virus testing, tracking still plagued by reporting delays

Associated Press  

ATLANTA — As part of the plan to restart its season next month, the NBA is preparing to test hundreds of players, coaches and others for the coronavirus each night inside a “basketball bubble” — a space at the Disney complex near Orlando, Florida, with extra protection against the disease. “It’s a good question of who should be responsible for …

US health officials: 20 million Americans may have had COVID-19
4 years, 6 months ago

US health officials: 20 million Americans may have had COVID-19

Al Jazeera  

Many infections were not caught in early testing when supplies were limited and testing was prioritised on symptoms. That is nearly 10 times as many infections as the 2.3 million cases that have been confirmed and comes as the Trump administration works to tamp down nationwide concern about the COVID-19 pandemic as about a dozen states are seeing a worrisome …

Covid testing capacity underutilized, should have been widely available sooner: experts
4 years, 7 months ago

Covid testing capacity underutilized, should have been widely available sooner: experts

NL Times  

Testing capacity has been underutilized in hospitals across the Netherlands, according to a new investigation by RTL Nieuws. According to Bert Niesters, a microbiology professor at UMCG Groningen, the findings underscore the fact that the government's former testing policy, which afforded test access to only small groups of people, had not been taken correctly with hindsight. The government's testing policy, …

Lack of immunity makes China vulnerable to second wave of virus infection: Expert
4 years, 7 months ago

Lack of immunity makes China vulnerable to second wave of virus infection: Expert

Deccan Chronicle  

Beijing: China still faces an enormous challenge of a potential second wave of COVID-19 infections, with a lack of immunity among a major threat, a top medical advisor of the country has warned. Coronavirus, which was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan has so far reported 82,000 COVID-19 cases in the country, with 4,633 fatalities, according to data …

US falls short in coronavirus testing in some areas of the country
4 years, 8 months ago

US falls short in coronavirus testing in some areas of the country

CNN  

CNN — In the tiny remote community of Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico, about one out of eight residents has been tested for Covid-19. “We have a patchwork of testing across the country.” Limited testing, despite promises On a March 6th visit to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, President Donald Trump said “anybody that wants a test can …

Coronavirus: Rollout of antibody tests met with confusion, little oversight
4 years, 8 months ago

Coronavirus: Rollout of antibody tests met with confusion, little oversight

CNN  

CNN — Public health experts, including members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, have argued accurate Covid-19 antibody tests can support efforts to get Americans back to work by determining who may have overcome the virus. States concerned by accuracy of antibody tests Antibody test data “are of dubious reliability; we are not tracking or analyzing them,” a spokesperson …

Public, private health labs may never be able to meet demand for coronavirus testing over supply chain shortages
4 years, 8 months ago

Public, private health labs may never be able to meet demand for coronavirus testing over supply chain shortages

CNN  

CNN — Public and private health laboratories throughout the United States and its territories are still unable to meet the demand for Covid-19 testing over supply shortages and may never be able to, even as the Trump administration rolled out a blueprint this week on ramping up testing across the country. “Although the overall amount of tests performed has expanded, …

Lifting lockdowns safely relies on effective testing. Germany is surging ahead, but US states are flying blind
4 years, 8 months ago

Lifting lockdowns safely relies on effective testing. Germany is surging ahead, but US states are flying blind

CNN  

CNN — People in the US state of Georgia can nowget their nails done, their hair cut – even get a tattoo or a massage – after just three weeks of a state-wide stay-at-home order. “If you can’t do that, then you go back to square one.” In two suggested plans for reopening the US economy, public health experts and …

Bill Gates lists out scientific advances needed to stop COVID-19 in online memo, says 'testing critical to control coronavirus'
4 years, 8 months ago

Bill Gates lists out scientific advances needed to stop COVID-19 in online memo, says 'testing critical to control coronavirus'

Firstpost  

The coronavirus pandemic pits all of humanity against the virus. Even though their populations are disproportionately young—which would tend to mean fewer deaths from COVID-19—this advantage is almost certainly offset by the fact that many low-income people’s immune systems are weakened by conditions like malnutrition or HIV. It is a complicated subject because even if young people don’t get sick …

How coronavirus testing fumbles squandered valuable time
4 years, 8 months ago

How coronavirus testing fumbles squandered valuable time

CNN  

CNN — As coronavirus test kits were malfunctioning in public health labs across the country, Dr. Robert Redfield repeatedly assured his fellow task force officials in February that the problem would be quickly solved. Any insinuation that he didn’t is “just plain wrong and disproven by the facts.” A CDC spokesman said Redfield did not offer any assurances about how …

How the government delayed coronavirus testing
4 years, 9 months ago

How the government delayed coronavirus testing

CNN  

CNN — A weeks-long testing delay that effectively blinded public health officials to the spread of the coronavirus in the US might have been avoided had federal agencies fully enacted their own plan to ramp up testing during a national health crisis. “And meanwhile, the academic laboratories who had developed their own tests also were not able to test because …

Coronavirus testing: Documents show backlog of 160,000 tests at just one lab company
4 years, 9 months ago

Coronavirus testing: Documents show backlog of 160,000 tests at just one lab company

CNN  

CNN — As the US health care system has scrambled to track the spread of coronavirus, one of the nation’s largest commercial labs has faced a backlog of tests that ballooned in the last two weeks, and has delayed results in some cases up to 10 days. “So that when you identify someone who’s infected, that person doesn’t go out …

Unusually inept: On US surpassing China in coronavirus cases
4 years, 9 months ago

Unusually inept: On US surpassing China in coronavirus cases

The Hindu  

The U.S. has surpassed mainland China as the country with the most number of novel coronavirus cases. However, unlike in China and a few other countries, America is yet to institute large-scale mitigation measures such as shutting down the three major hotspots —New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. It is true that Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea managed to …

America is ramping up Covid-19 testing, but a shortage of basic supplies is limiting capabilities
4 years, 9 months ago

America is ramping up Covid-19 testing, but a shortage of basic supplies is limiting capabilities

CNN  

CNN — President Donald Trump touted increased testing capabilities for Covid-19 in a letter to the nation’s governors this week, but a series of interviews with representatives from a wide swath of states has revealed officials hamstrung in their abilities to test, report and track the deadly virus. The federal government sent the state three testing kits last week, each …

March 27, 2020 coronavirus news
4 years, 9 months ago

March 27, 2020 coronavirus news

CNN  

Federal health officials on Friday green-lit a point-of-care coronavirus test that can provide results in less than 15 minutes, using the same technology that powers some rapid flu tests. Teased by Vice President Mike Pence in a Thursday press briefing, the new diagnostic could accelerate testing in the United States, allowing for rapid results in doctors’ offices. All FDA-authorized tests, …

March 27, 2020 coronavirus news
4 years, 9 months ago

March 27, 2020 coronavirus news

CNN  

Federal health officials on Friday green-lit a point-of-care coronavirus test that can provide results in less than 15 minutes, using the same technology that powers some rapid flu tests. Teased by Vice President Mike Pence in a Thursday press briefing, the new diagnostic could accelerate testing in the United States, allowing for rapid results in doctors’ offices. All FDA-authorized tests, …

U.S. Tops 100,000 Coronavirus Cases, Testing Kits, Equipment Still In Short Supply
4 years, 9 months ago

U.S. Tops 100,000 Coronavirus Cases, Testing Kits, Equipment Still In Short Supply

NPR  

Tops 100,000 Coronavirus Cases, Testing Kits, Equipment Still In Short Supply The United States on Friday surpassed more than 100,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases, doubling the number of known infections counted just three days ago. He also addressed the cry for more testing kits, ventilators and personal protective gear from health care workers and state leaders, saying there would be an …

Testing blunders crippled US response as coronavirus...
4 years, 9 months ago

Testing blunders crippled US response as coronavirus...

Daily Mail  

A series of missteps at the nation's top public health agency caused a critical shortage of tests for coronavirus, hobbling the federal response as the pandemic spread across the country like wildfire, an Associated Press review found. In February, as the virus began taking root in the US population, CDC data shows government labs processed 352 COVID-19 tests - an …

US virus testing faces new headwind: Lab supply shortages
4 years, 9 months ago

US virus testing faces new headwind: Lab supply shortages

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — First, some of the coronavirus tests didn’t work. There are “acute, serious shortages across the board” for supplies needed to do the tests, said Eric Blank, of the Association of Public Health Laboratories, which represents state and local health labs. Late Friday, Blank’s group and two other public health organizations recommended that testing be scaled back due to …

Coronavirus testing hits another snag as labs need emergency funding to meet high demand
4 years, 9 months ago

Coronavirus testing hits another snag as labs need emergency funding to meet high demand

LA Times  

Roper St. Francis Healthcare employee Raeanne Castillo, right, gives specimen collection kits to a LabCorp worker at the hospital’s office in North Charleston, S.C. One week after the Trump administration promised a massive expansion of free coronavirus testing, the commercial labs tasked with the effort say they need emergency funding to meet rapidly increasing demand, marking the latest snag in …

COVID-19: Bill Gates says countries that shut will bounce back in weeks
4 years, 9 months ago

COVID-19: Bill Gates says countries that shut will bounce back in weeks

India TV News  

As coronavirus cases continue to surge across the world, Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates has said countries that do a good job in testing of the deadly coronavirus and shut down could bounce back both economically as well as on the health front in weeks. "If a country does a good job with testing and shut down, then within …

U.S. Coronavirus Testing Starts To Ramp Up But Still Lags
4 years, 9 months ago

U.S. Coronavirus Testing Starts To Ramp Up But Still Lags

NPR  

U.S. Coronavirus Testing Starts To Ramp Up But Still Lags Enlarge this image toggle caption Darin Oswald/Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service via Getty Images Darin Oswald/Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service via Getty Images As the Trump administration scrambles to make more coronavirus tests available, demand for testing still outstrips availability. Sponsor Message Every state public health lab is now testing, new high-volume, …

Where are the tests? (opinion)
4 years, 9 months ago

Where are the tests? (opinion)

CNN  

Editor’s Note: Dwayne Briening, MD, is the Executive Director of Northwell Health Labs. There are only a relative few public health facilities – less than 100 at the moment, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – around the country that have been approved to perform the tests, including Northwell Health Labs, one of the nation’s largest hospital …

Coronavirus testing lags in U.S., with only a fraction of suspected cases tested so far
4 years, 9 months ago

Coronavirus testing lags in U.S., with only a fraction of suspected cases tested so far

LA Times  

Federal and state officials on Monday said they had finally turned a corner on the coronavirus pandemic and promised a massive expansion of testing, but hopes remained dim in hospitals and clinics as patients still awaited results and overworked doctors sharply questioned the government’s latest pledge. L.A. County public health chief Barbara Ferrer said that though the county’s testing capacity …

As testing ramps up, many doctors and patients are still experiencing problems
4 years, 9 months ago

As testing ramps up, many doctors and patients are still experiencing problems

CNN  

CNN — The head of the World Health Organization has a simple message for all countries about who should be tested for coronavirus: “Test, test, test. “We need to make testing available so that we get to the frontier of the cases, so that the moment someone develops symptoms, we test and quarantine them…that’s how you nip an epidemic in …

Coronavirus test: confusion over availability and criteria is leaving sick people wondering if they’re infected
4 years, 9 months ago

Coronavirus test: confusion over availability and criteria is leaving sick people wondering if they’re infected

CNN  

CNN — A group of first responders in Washington state, a scientist in California, a woman at an assisted living facility in Florida – all worried because they believe they might have novel coronavirus but say they can’t get tested. Their stories came into CNN’s tip line even as Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday told CNN’s morning show, “New …

Problems mount with coronavirus testing, limiting access and sowing confusion
4 years, 9 months ago

Problems mount with coronavirus testing, limiting access and sowing confusion

LA Times  

Testing for the novel coronavirus continues to face severe limitations, as California health officials lack key components to conduct laboratory analysis, marking another barrier in the state’s efforts to identify infectious patients. Newsom said that without the needed supplies, the “test kits are like printers, but without ink.” In California, only 1,138 people had been tested for the virus in …

US labs await virus-testing kits promised by administration
4 years, 10 months ago

US labs await virus-testing kits promised by administration

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — Trump administration officials doubled down on their promise to deliver 1 million tests for the coronavirus this week as states reported limited testing supplies and federal lawmakers expressed doubts about the government’s timeline. Asked Thursday whether there were enough testing kits, Vice President Mike Pence responded, ”I think we are we are ready today but we want to …

Chaos at hospitals due to shortage of coronavirus testing
4 years, 10 months ago

Chaos at hospitals due to shortage of coronavirus testing

LA Times  

A researcher works in a lab that is developing a test for the coronavirus last week in Nutley, N.J. As COVID-19 cases spike, the testing needed to help stem the spread of the disease remains below what is needed to address the growing crisis, with healthcare workers across the state reporting widespread failings in the response by local and federal …

Authorities looking at 'scaling up' coronavirus testing capabilities around the country
4 years, 10 months ago

Authorities looking at 'scaling up' coronavirus testing capabilities around the country

ABC  

Health authorities have been examining ways to scale up the capacity to provide testing for the coronavirus to ensure rapid tests are available across the country if needed. Key points: Coronavirus tests in Australia currently only take place in public health laboratories Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy says there are now plans to "scale up" testing capabilities around the …

US government under scrutiny over delays in coronavirus testing
4 years, 10 months ago

US government under scrutiny over delays in coronavirus testing

Al Jazeera  

Washington, DC – More coronavirus cases are expected in the United States amid efforts to ramp up testing for the disease, officials say, after weeks of delays and faulty test kits led the virus to circulate undetected. “As we expand testing we will certainly pick up additional cases,” said Peter Jay Hotez, professor and dean at the National School of …

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