Labs nationwide are overwhelmed by patient samples flooding in as they continue to face a shortage of critical supplies.
President Donald Trump and other officials are boasting that the United States is now testing nearly 700,000 people each week for the coronavirus.
But that’s not enough to catch every case of the disease or to provide the kind of data needed to lift social distancing measures and allow people to go back to work. And because testing capacity remains inadequate, it’s unclear when we’ll get there.
Labs nationwide are overwhelmed by patient samples flooding in as they continue to face a shortage of critical supplies. A rapid test described by Trump in mid-March as a “game changer” that would soon be available in doctors offices is still hard to come by for many Americans.
And officials at some public and private labs are questioning the accuracy of new antibody tests that are designed to detect whether a person has ever been infected with the coronavirus — a crucial tool to understand the true scope of the U.S. outbreak…
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