“ Test , test , test ” is the key to containing the COVID-19 pandemic , urgedthe World Health Organisation ’s ( WHO ) director - general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus last calendar week .
In light of this guidance , theUS Food and Drug Administration ( FDA)has given pinch approval to a new symptomatic test for COVID-19 that can farm a result in just 45 second . Cepheid , the California - based company that developed the test , hopes to start rolling out its test to hospital and aesculapian practices by the end of this month .
“ The examination we ’re authorizing today will be able to cater Americans with results within hours , rather than days like the existing test , and the company plans to roll it out by March 30 , which is an incredibly rapid timeline for such an effort , ” Alex Azar , US Secretary of Health and Human Services , say in astatementon March 21 .
However , Cepheid has accentuate that the examination should only be used in urgent circumstances in hospitals for those who need it most . Its main project , for the prison term being , is to plainly facilitate pressure on health care adroitness .
“ We do n’t believe this technology should be used , at least ab initio , in a doctor ’s function . This is not a trial for the upset well , ” David Persing , chief aesculapian officer of Cepheid , toldSTAT .
“ It needs to be used very meagerly for patients who really need it and for health guardianship workers who really need it . "
The US currently has thethird - highest numberof corroborate COVID-19 eccentric in the world , after Italy and China . New York State alonehas at least 15,000 sustain case as of March 23 , more than the whole of South Korea and the UK combined .
Many have criticized the US government ’s response to the on-going crisis , not least because ofthe slow and ball up rolloutof coronavirus trial , which has seenmany hospital struggling to get their hands on test equipmentdue tosupply shortages , bureaucratism , andpolitics . While there has been a late ramping up of effort , many hospitals and medical professionals arestill experiencingproblems when it comes to acquiring a exam .
examination is a vital tool for understanding and appropriate a ball-shaped viral eruption . In the words of WHO honcho Dr Tedros , not testing for COVID-19 is like a fireman trying to put out an conflagration with a blindfold on . Speaking at a press conference last hebdomad , heurgedgovernments to " prove every suspected case . If they test positive isolate them and find out who they have been in close striking with up to two days before they originate symptoms and test those masses too . "
