While the Covid-19 pandemic spreads and the U.S. death toll approaches 25,000, there’s been an unexplained slowdown in testing for the coronavirus.
“The number of coronavirus tests analyzed each day by commercial labs in the U.S. plummeted by more than 30 percent over the past week, even though new infections are still surging in many states and officials are desperately trying to ramp up testing so the country can reopen,” reports Politico.
One possible answer may be the CDC’s narrow testing criteria, which prioritize vulnerable groups like health care workers and older people, along with patients already in hospitals.
“It’s not clear whether demand has peaked among the groups on the CDC’s priority list,” Politico says. “But after being overwhelmed for weeks, commercial labs say they are now sitting with unused testing capacity waiting for samples to arrive.”
As of Wednesday, more than 3 million Americans have been tested, and over 600,000 came back positive. Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. now total more than 27,000, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
Dozens of business who took part in a teleconference with President Trump on Wednesday applauded his efforts to get the economy moving again, CNN reported. But they also agreed with public health experts who say that beating the virus and re-opening the country demands a major increase in the number of Americans tested.
That increase could involve expanding the CDC’s list of those eligible for virus screening, as well as ensuring that health workers get enough testing swabs, personal protective equipment and other supplies needed to safely collect and analyze samples.
Meanwhile, Senate Democrats noted the testing slowdown and proposed a national strategy to address it.
The lawmakers say their plan is aimed at “filling a void left by the Trump administration, which hasn’t released a plan to scale up Covid-19 testing to allow Americans to return to work and school,” reports the Los Angeles Times.
“The U.S. lags the world in testing and we lead the world in Covid-19 cases,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI). “We are raising the alarm bells.”
There is bipartisan support in Congress for additional testing, the LA Times says. But it’s unclear where the Trump White House stands — and Republicans might not go along with the Democrats’ proposal.