Testing logjam is keeping vital information from patients and health officials.
, so most states had to rely on CDC analysis, creating a backlog, ProPublica reported.
“We’re weeks behind because we had this problem,” Scott Becker, chief executive officer of the Association of Public Health Laboratories, told ProPublica. “We’re usually up-front and center and ready.”to suspected cases of COVID-19 among people who had traveled to China within two weeks of developing symptoms or who had been in close contact with someone with the illness.
A county health director in Washington, where the nation’s first coronavirus fatality occurred, complained Saturday about the delay in critical identification of people with the disease caused by the testing holdup and the CDC’s strict criteria before a test could even be conducted. “If we had the ability to test earlier, I’m sure we would have identified patients earlier,” said Jeff Duchin. Early detection is critical so that people can begin treatment and be isolated before passing on the virus to someone else.
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