Last week, Vice President Mike Pence said there would be 1.5 million Coronavirus test kits going out to medical professionals around the country. This week, we spoke to a medical professional in Northern Virginia that said only 75 test kits have been sent to the “region”.
WTVR in Richmond is reporting that the Virginia state health commissioner sent out a letter to health professionals saying a “very small” amount of tests have been sent. Additionally he added some criteria before using the limited tests they have.
According to the article posted on WTVR, the criteria include known contact, recent travel to known outbreak areas or showing symptoms, but tested negative for the flu.
The problem with waiting until someone is symptomatic is that they could be infecting people before they show symptoms. People can infect others long before they show symptoms according to a study posted by CIDRAP.
It means the health care professionals that are seeing the sick and testing them for flu could also be contracting COVID-19 during examinations. This could and likely is happening to hospitals around the country.
Business Insider is reporting that five health care professionals have tested positive for COVID-19 with hundreds more in quarantine.
How long can we keep this up?
These COVID-19 tests need to be made quickly and distributed ever quicker. We have to expand the number of people that are getting tested.
The health care professional that we spoke to painted a grim picture of what could be happening. “It’s probably already out there more than we know. I’ve had phone calls with symptomatic people that could be flu or COVID-19. Who knows?”
Stay Safe!
