Quick thread on testing (1 of 4)

Between April 2 and April 8, we averaged 148K tests/day

Between April 9 and April 15 (today), we averaged 147K tests/day

% positive declined a bit.

Another week. Another week of little to no progress?

What& #39;s going on?

2 of 4

Have been calling lab directors, state health officials, front line staff at around the country to learn what is going on.

What& #39;s holding us back?

Short list:

1. Still big shortages of standard stuff: PPEs, infrastructure for testing, reagents, swabs!!

Why shortages (cont):

2 Some places still have restrictive testing policies despite more test availability. Leads to idle capacity

3 Low reimbursement means some labs can& #39;t afford to test. New policy change today should help

4 Some states don& #39;t know their testing bottlenecks

Why is the issue of testing still so important?

Because we& #39;re talking about when to open up

And everyone agrees we need robust testing -- likely 3X what we have now.

So if we want to open up the country and REMAIN open, testing central area where we need serious progress.

Fin