US has only tested 5,000 people for coronavirus, CDC director says

Two private companies now have enough tests available to meet demand, so there is likely to be a sharp uptick in the number of tests performed, and the number of diagnosed patients

The director of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said that only 4,856 coronavirus tests have been run in public health labs.

Dr Robert Redfield told a congressional hearing on Tuesday that the number does not include clinical labs or private labs, and was last updated on Monday.

He also said that private companies Laboratory Corp of America and Quest Diagnostics now have enough coronavirus tests available that any US doctor’s office that uses those companies can have their patients tested.

Speaking at a House Appropriations Committee hearing for the 2021 CDC budget, Dr Redfield said the CDC is working on a new reporting system to track tests and aggregate the total number which should be available soon.

“We've got a new reporting system that has CDC, public health labs. We're going to get direct dumps from LabCorp and Quest so people are going to see all the tests done, where they are done. We will have a surveillance system that does that,” Dr Redfield said.

Earlier in the week, there appeared to be some confusion within the federal government as to how many Americans had been tested for the virus. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said that his department does not know how many Americans have been tested.

Data collated from a number of national health bodies and the World Health Organisation illustrates the woefully small number of tests performed in the US compared to other countries. Today’s figures show that testing is finally ramping up.

Data from 8 March shows that the US has only completed five tests per 1 million people, versus 347 in the UK, 826 in Italy, and 3,692 in South Korea.

Health officials have warned that with increased testing will come a sharp jump in the number of confirmed cases — many of whom may be asymptomatic or only showing mild symptoms, but still able to pass the virus on to other people.