Despite improved access to COVID-19 testing, many U.S. states lag behind nationwide goals, with one Harvard study finding that fewer than 10 states have done enough testing to safely reopen.
While progress has been made, top health officials and public health experts agree that more widespread testing for infected patients is the key to reopening society.
“It's crucial of course to help treat, isolate or hospitalize people who are infected,” he wrote in a column on the association’s website. “Testing also is important in the bigger public health picture on mitigation efforts, helping investigators characterize the prevalence, spread and contagiousness of the disease.
“It is critical that the federal government set appropriate targets for testing and communicate those targets. For months, the administration has been saying we have enough tests when we don’t. This has sent a signal to markets against investing in additional capacity and new testing capabilities -- at precisely the moment when these investments are most needed,” he said in his prepared statement to the committee.
These states, with the exception of Oregon, have already begun reopening. But, other states including Georgia, Texas, and Colorado, also partially reopened despite being far from reaching their targets, says Katz. “As things shift more, they will only fall further behind.” “The delivery of supplies is a critical issue. The logistics of getting this out, whether it’s PPE [personal protective equipment], testing, or medical equipment, is extremely fragmented, leading to price gouging and many other inefficiencies. You need to stand up the full power” of the Defense Production Act, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-WI, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said at Tuesday’s hearing.
The U.S. was competing with countries in Europe and Asia for these reagents in February when they were also increasing testing. “There was a global demand for reagents -- that put everyone and the U.S. behind,” says Blank.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
White House List Of Testing Labs Wasn't Helpful, States SayRepresentatives from a number of states said the list provided to them for coronavirus testing contained labs that they already knew about, or ones that weren't approved for the testing.
Read more »
'50 states and 50 different approaches:' States scramble to hire COVID-19 contact tracersPublic health officials are counting on such methodical contact tracing coupled with aggressive testing as the nation’s strategy to combat the coronavirus.
Read more »
Rare child illness linked to coronavirus detected in states not considered hot spotsWATCH: Rare child illness linked to coronavirus detected in states not considered hot spots.
Read more »
Study links Obamacare to fewer cancer deaths in some statesNew research finds that cancer deaths have dropped more in states that expanded Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act than in states that did not.
Read more »
Study ties 'Obamacare' to fewer cancer deaths in some statesCancer deaths have dropped more in states that expanded Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act than in states that did not, new research reveals. The report Wednesday is the first evidence tying cancer survival to the health care change, which began in 2014 after the law known as “Obamacare
Read more »
Greatest increases of COVID deaths projected in Republican statesA Yahoo Finance analysis of a University of Washington model has found that the greatest increase of coronavirus deaths will be in Republican states.
Read more »