A sick woman coughing (Shutterstock)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has tested only 77 people for coronavirus this week, a startlingly low number that indicates the rate of testing for Americans is actually decreasing even as the virus spreads.
Yahoo News reports that Dr. Stephen Redd, head of the CDC’s Office of Public Health Preparedness, revealed this week that the CDC has tested a total of 1,784 people for the disease. This number represented an increase from Sunday, when the CDC said that it had tested 1,707 people.
What's more, the report states that there is only one private testing facility up and running at the moment, even though "the administration has repeatedly said that private enterprise would play a critical role in making sure that all Americans who need a coronavirus test receive one."
Mark Birenbaum of the National Independent Laboratory Association tells Yahoo News that there won't be another private testing facility open until next week at the earliest, and that there are between seven to ten other private labs that are still being set up.
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