“The average test delay is too long,” Dr. Francis Collins said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And that really undermines the value of testing, because tests are done to find out who carries the virus, and then they are quickly isolated so they don’t spread.”
As Covid-19 continues to rise in the U.S., some states, labs, and public health departments warn that response times for diagnostic tests have slowed down.
The challenges, stemming in part from persistent bottlenecks in the testing supply chain, underscore that while the overall testing capacity of the US has multiplied, the nation’s healthcare system is still struggling in some regions to quickly detect the spread of the virus.
Collins said Sunday that the government must invest in new technology to keep up with demand for evidence.
“We need to do things that are more in place,” Collins said. “A number of new technologies are emerging that look very promising in that space. We need to invest a large amount of money, and the government is willing to do it to expand them.”
“That is because we have excellent tests, because we have the best tests in the world,” said the president of some states who saw an increase in the number of coronavirus cases, then added: “The cases have risen because we have the best tests in the world and we have the most tests. “
Health experts have said this is not the case, pointing to data showing that the percentage of people with positive results has also skyrocketed, indicating the spread of the virus.
Some Senate Republicans are pushing for more money for the efforts in the next round of stimulus spending, but the White House argues that enough funding remains from the March stimulus bill, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told CNN. Saturday.
CNN’s Manu Raju, Lauren Fox, Kristen Holmes, Curt Devine and Naomi Thomas contributed to this report.
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