The questions keep piling up.
There was the revelation late Wednesday that federal officials initially declined to test the first U.S. 2019 novel coronavirus case of “unknown origin.” Plus word of hundreds of people under monitoring for infection in Massachusetts and thousands more in California.
Taken in tandem, the developments underscored festering concerns about testing for the deadly disease in a country with a questionable health infrastructure.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at first declined to test a since-confirmed case of novel 2019 coronavirus at UC Davis Medical Center, Dr. David Lubarsky, CEO of University of California Davis Health, announced Wednesday.
“We requested COVID-19 testing by the CDC, since neither Sacramento County nor CDPH is doing testing for coronavirus at this time,” he said in a press release. “Since the patient did not fit the existing CDC criteria for COVID-19, a test was not immediately administered. UC Davis Health does not control the testing process.”
On Sunday, the CDC changed its mind and ordered testing of the patient, along with airborne precautions and strict contact precautions, Lubarsky added. By Wednesday, the agency confirmed the individual’s diagnosis—the first case of community transmission from an unknown origin in the United States and the 60th case on American soil.
Some public health labs have gone so far in recent days as to ask the CDC for permission to develop their own tests, Hawaiian officials asked for the OK to use Japanese tests, and at least one doctor in Boston was working on their own, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
One expert who has been sounding the alarm about the U.S.’s lackluster testing infrastructure said the dearth of diagnostic materials, which comes into sharper focus almost daily, was alarming.
“It isn’t under control,” said Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University and an expert on U.S. readiness for pandemics. “We do not have anything close to a sufficient quantity of test kits. There’s definitely a problem in the supply chain for accurate, reliable testing materials. I don’t know that we really know what’s happening in California or anywhere else right now for that matter. It’s a very, very confusing time.”
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