As
the new coronavirus continues to infect people around the world, the rush to test for the virus has taken on a new urgency. But the United States is lagging on that front, in part due to faulty test kits and strict regulations, experts told Live Science.
"We're not remotely prepared," Dr. Alex Greninger, an assistant professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and an assistant director of the Clinical Virology Laboratory at the University of Washington Medical Center, told Live Science.
In early February, the CDC sent testing kits to labs across the U.S., but a
glitch in the kits made them unusable. Now, more than a month later, just five state health departments — in California, Illinois, Nebraska, Nevada and Tennessee — as well as the CDC, have the ability to test for the virus, known as SARS-CoV-2.
These strict protocols may explain, in part, why as of Feb. 26,
just 445 people have been tested for SARS-CoV-2 in the U.S., not including travelers who have returned on evacuation flights, such as those from the
Diamond Princess cruise ship. In contrast, as of Feb. 25, South Korea has tested more than 35,000 people for the virus,
The Washington Post reported.