Air Force imports 500,000 coronavirus test kits from Italy as Trump CDC struggles to make enough

The United States Air Force this week flew in 500,000 coronavirus test kits from Italy amid a severe shortage of viable kits for doctors to use in the United States.

Defense One reports that the Air Force flew the kits into the Memphis International Airport, which serves as a major hub for FedEx, so that they can be shipped quickly out to medical facilities across the country.

"A photo posted to Instagram on Tuesday shows a C-17 filled with pallets loaded with the test kits, captioned by a user who said he was part of the air crew," Defense One writes. "The user who posted the picture has since deleted it, but Defense One has verified its authenticity."

The addition of hundreds of thousands of test kits will be welcome news for medical professionals who have been increasingly alarmed at the continued lack of widespread testing in the United States at a time when confirmed cases of coronavirus have increased by more than 12 times in just the last nine days.