The federal government is working on delays in coronavirus testing, but the country needs to pay more attention to prevention, says Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams.
“It is important to know that a test result that returns seven, 10, 14 days later, can not isolate us and contact trace, which is what we feel is important to contain the virus, so we are very aware of concerns. about delays, ”Adams said Sunday on INFocus, a Fox magazine show aimed at Indiana.
“As a public health physician, I want people to know that we feel tests are important, but we can not test our way out of this problem,” Adams added. “We have to lean on prevention, and that’s making sure everyone has a mask, washes their hands and looks at distance from others.”
Adams said about 50% of tests done in the U.S. are either point of concern “which is 15 minutes or less” to get results, or in hospitals “that is 24 hours or less.”
“So what we are really talking about is the 50% of tests that are done in private labs, and at the moment … the test time on average across the country is now less than three days for the private labs and it most private lab tests return within two days, ”said Adams.
“So that’s a problem – it’s a problem for some labs and for some people in particular. It’s a problem we’re working on, but we’ll keep these cases going. ”
When Adams was asked about Dr. Anthony Fauci that “we do not do great” compared to other countries, said Adams, “I think two things can be true at the same time: it can be true that there are many people who are doing the right thing and also we really need to do better. “
Adams noted that the U.S. has not seen the more than 1 million deaths that some health experts predict. ‘But that does not mean we can no longer and do not have to. We have to wait and see, ‘he said. According to Johns Hopkins University, more than 170,000 Americans died from coronavirus, although the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 90% of the cases were probably missed.
Adams accused the spike in figures over spring and summer holidays, making people want to ‘hang out’ with friends and family. ‘What I would say to people is that we can achieve this … and come to a place where we can safely reopen. “But if people just ignore these basic measures for public health, we will continue to see proliferation increase and we will actually lose choices and lose freedom because we will be forced to quit,” he said.
Adams said Indianapolis “has been on our radar screen” because more than 10% of people testing for coronavirus in Marion County had positive test results – in the red zone. The same goes for Fort Wayne’s Allen county.
“We want the people of the state to know that we are concerned, but we also want them to know that we have the tools to turn this around,” he said.
Before Adams was a general surgeon, Adams was a state commissioner for health.
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