Prognosis
Coronavirus Testing Gap Creates Public-Health Chaos Across U.S.
Early screening failures have obscured the full scope of the outbreak and hamstrung decision makers
This article is for subscribers only.
The new coronavirus has outrun America’s power to diagnose it, complicating efforts to contain an outbreak that has led to economic turmoil and increasingly disrupted daily life.
Hospitals, state public-health labs and doctors say overall testing capacity around the U.S. is growing, but not fast enough. In recent days, commercial labs have started offering screening, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the country’s public-health labs can test a cumulative total of 75,000 people.