A longtime adviser to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and infectious disease expert said the lack of novel coronavirus test kits has been a “bottleneck.”
“We haven’t been able to test more broadly as many of my colleagues in infectious disease would like,” said Dr. William Schaffner, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, said on CNN today.
A flaw in the CDC-issued test kits delayed testing abilities in nearly all state and local public health labs.
The CDC has issued new testing protocols that should allow as many as 40 labs to begin testing soon. And despite the newest US case — a California patient with an infection with an unknown origin — Schaffner was confident about the US response.
“We’re still in very good shape here in the United States. We’ve had very few cases. They’ve been well identified, well cared for, and public health is working hard, having identified all the contacts,” he said. “Now, this California case changes the equation, of course. Where did that person get their infection? That investigation is currently very much under way. And we’re all watching that very, very carefully. So far, so good, but we expect more introductions of the virus. That’s inevitable.”