Trump Administration Has Enough Tests for 2% of State Populations -- 2nd Update
April 27 2020 - 5:41PM
Dow Jones News
By Michael C. Bender
WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration is prepared to send all
50 states enough tests to screen at least 2% of residents for the
new coronavirus, a senior administration official said Monday, with
the aim of rapidly expanding supplies in the coming weeks as the
nation's leaders look to reopen parts of the economy.
President Trump plans to give a news conference after 5 p.m. in
which he is expected to discuss testing. The official said that
testing 2% of each state's population was the minimum needed to
maintain public health.
Mr. Trump met with heads of major retailers, pharmacy chains and
testing labs on Monday, including Walmart Inc. and CVS Health
Corp.
"Together we're accelerating testing for Americans and retail
locations across the country," Mr. Trump said ahead of the news
briefing. He said a particular point of emphasis was testing in
African-American and Hispanic communities.
CVS Health Corp. said it would expand its coronavirus testing
operations, offering self-swab tests at as many as 1,000 CVS
Pharmacy parking lots and drive-through windows by the end of May,
with the goal of processing up to 1.5 million tests a month.
Smaller rival Walgreen Co. also said it is ramping up testing
capacity.
The lack of widely available coronavirus tests has been a chief
complaint from business leaders whom the Trump administration
leaned on for economic advice. Mr. Trump told reporters on March 6
that anyone who wanted a test could get a test, a promise that
remains unfulfilled.
About 5.4 million Americans have been tested for the virus so
far, according to the COVID Tracking Project, or about 1.6% of the
population. Laboratories across the U.S. are currently processing
about one million tests a week, but public health experts say that
testing still needs to be greatly expanded in most communities to
quickly identify and isolate cases and move out of lockdowns
safely.
One roadblock to scaling-up testing has been a lack of swabs and
chemical reagents needed to collect patient samples, though those
shortages are starting to ease, laboratory officials say.
In a briefing with reporters on Monday, senior administration
officials said they have provided states with guidance to perform
the necessary amount of Covid-19 testing. The administration was
planning to publicize a strategy for nationwide testing on Monday,
one official said.
That testing strategy was intended to provide states with
guidance that could help determine when to ease social-distancing
guidelines, an official said. Mr. Trump has said it is up to states
to determine when to reopen local economies.
The administration was prepared to provide some states with
enough kits to quadruple the number of coronavirus tests that have
been performed to date, one senior administration official said,
adding that "the hope is that by fall we've got so many tests that
we're swimming in tests."
"When this whole thing started, I don't think anyone really
appreciated how hard this was," the official said.
--Brianna Abbott contributed to this article.
Write to Michael C. Bender at Mike.Bender@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 27, 2020 17:26 ET (21:26 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Walmart (NYSE:WMT)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jun 2024 to Jul 2024
Walmart (NYSE:WMT)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jul 2023 to Jul 2024