Health officials said Sunday they planned to ramp up coronavirus testing by tens of thousands of additional people a week, beginning this week.<\/p>\n
Vice President Mike Pence and other health officials said two factors will allow them to increase testing capacity dramatically in coming days: Some 2,000 labs coming online across the nation to process tests and high through put tests that can be used for drive-through or walk-up test centers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are now in a new phase of testing,\u201d said Adm. Brett P. Giroir, assistant secretary of health at Department of Health and Human Services. “That is really a game-changer for us.”<\/p>\n
Giroir said gear and federal health care workers would begin shipping out Monday.<\/p>\n
Health officials said they were focusing those tests on two groups: Healthcare workers and first responders, as well as those who are 65 and older with a respiratory symptom and a fever of at least 99.6 degrees. The officials pleaded Americans to help prioritize\u00a0those two groups.<\/p>\n
“As we expand testing resources… it’s important the tests are available for the people most in need,” Pence added.<\/p>\n
Health officials stressed that an increase in testing would likely bring about a spike in confirmed cases:\u00a0\u201cThe worst is yet ahead for us,\u201d said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.<\/p>\n
The U.S. had 3,244 confirmed coronavirus cases across 49 states as of Sunday night, with more than 70 reported deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University data dashboard.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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