Coronavirus testing in US could face ‘huge’ disruption due to looming shortage of critical lab materials
- The slow pace of coronavirus testing could create a major gap in the US public health response, health experts say
- Latest problem involves an inability to prepare samples for testing, due to a scarcity of supplies used to extract genetic material from patients
A looming shortage in lab materials is threatening to delay coronavirus test results and cause officials to undercount the number of Americans with the virus.
Robert Redfield, director of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said on Tuesday that he was not confident that US labs have an adequate stock of the supplies used to extract genetic material from any virus in a patient’s sample – a critical step in coronavirus testing.
“The availability of those reagents is obviously being looked at,” he said, referring to the chemicals used for preparing samples. “I’m confident of the actual test that we have, but as people begin to operationalise the test, they realise there’s other things they need to do the test.”
The coronavirus task force convened by the White House is also aware of the shortages, and one official said members are working on it.
