Anyone can be tested for COVID-19, subject to a doctor's orders: Pence
The Centers for Disease Control is issuing new guidance that anyone can be tested for COVID-19 with no restrictions, subject to a doctor's orders, Vice President Mike Pence announced in a briefing with reporters Tuesday evening.
"It's unacceptable that people in my state and nationwide can't even get an answer to whether or not they are infected," she said in a hearing with officials from the Centers for Disease Control, Food and Drug Administration and Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday. One company, Integrated DNA Technologies, is manufacturing the COVID-19 test both for CDC to distribute to public health labs and commercially for private and clinical labs. FDA says the company expects to distribute 2,500 test kits by the end of the week, each including 500 tests.
Story continuesOne problem has been that the initial test kits deployed by the CDC didn't work the way health officials wanted, so states are just now getting access to working tests. Compare that to South Korea: At one point last week, the U.S. had conducted some 3,600 tests total, whereas South Korea was over 70,000, including 10,000 tests in a single day.
In coronavirus, the predominant symptoms are what's called a"lower respiratory" infection, or an infection in the lungs, said Anthony Fauci, director of National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. That's what would cause the cough, along with the fever. Should we be wearing masks? Is it a global 'pandemic'?Health officials say people should not wear masks if they are not sick and are not in contact with someone who is infected.
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