U.S. will be able to test 400,000 people for coronavirus by week's end

06 Mar 2020 00:35
29 Jul 2024 15:03

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U.S. will be able to test 400,000 people for coronavirus by week's end

U.S. health officials said on Thursday they expect to be able to get enough coronavirus tests to public laboratories this week to test about 400,000 people, and acknowledged the challenge for doctors seeking to get patients screened for the disease, Reuters reports.

Officials expect to ship additional test kits to cover between 1.5 and 1.7 million people by the end of next week, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told reporters.

“Right now, it is a challenge if you are a doctor wanting to get somebody tested,” Azar said, following a briefing with lawmakers, adding that physicians could only reach out to a limited network of public health labs.

“That experience will get better over the next week, week and a half, two weeks. But do not be surprised if you hear concerns of doctors saying: ‘I have a patient. I don’t know how to get this done,’” Azar told reporters.

The private contractor that makes the test used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for public labs - privately held Integrated DNA Technologies Inc, or IDT - is seeking to get its test to hospitals and other labs for wider use in the coming days.

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