Only 5,000 Americans Have Been Tested For The Coronavirus So Far

Despite vows to drastically expand coronavirus testing, federal and state public health authorities have tested only 4,987 people for the coronavirus as of Tuesday morning, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and numbers provided by all 50 states.

That count includes people tested by the federal government and by state laboratories. Because those laboratories may not always report people who tested negative for the coronavirus, the true number of people tested is probably somewhat higher.

That number stands in stark contrast to the promises made by leading members of the Trump administration’s coronavirus task force, who have variously asserted that 75,000 people would be tested by last week’s end and that laboratories across the United States would have the capacity to conduct 1.5 million tests by the beginning of this week.

Neither claim appears to yet be close to realized, angering some Washington lawmakers. “We are in a crisis, and there are questions about our preparedness and ongoing response efforts,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said on Tuesday morning. “I’m very concerned — and, I think, we all are — about our nation’s capabilities for coronavirus. Other countries have been testing thousands of people for weeks, but the U.S. is woefully behind the curve.”

Keith Olbermann Could Be Cancelled by the Time You Finish This Article: Evil Kirk Comment Will Finish Him for Good

Watch: Schumer Has Weird On-Air Malfunction, Gets Stuck in Loop for 40 Seconds Straight Over Kimmel Suspension

EXCLUSIVE: New DC watchdog aims to become ‘leading voice’ for conservative values, effective governance

Sanders becomes first senator to say Israel committing genocide in Gaza

Judge orders Mahmoud Khalil deported to Algeria or Syria

Immigration judge orders deportation of Mahmoud Khalil to Syria or Algeria

Cornell MBA council warns ‘non-marginalized’ students to avoid minority recruiting events: report

Spirit Airlines pilot scolded after straying too close to Trump’s Air Force One

What Saved the US in the Late 1960s Appears to Be Happening Again, Particularly After Kirk’s Assassination

Trump to designate antifa as ‘major terrorist organization’

New Hampshire daycare worker who secretly gave kids melatonin spared jail

Trump to designate antifa a ‘major terrorist organization’

EXCLUSIVE: Man who sparred with Muslim Dearborn mayor, told he wasn’t ‘welcome’ revealed as Christian minister

Breaking: Kimmel Booted from Air Over Kirk Comments, ABC to ‘Replace the Show with Other Programming’

Alert: Multiple Officers Down in PA Shooting, Mexican Consulate Issues Strange Message Immediately After

The nation’s ability to test for the coronavirus was hampered early on because a test created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was found to have a contaminated reagent, meaning that one of its three markers — the one that would indicate a person was not infected — was not operational.

The CDC eventually corrected that error but also had to grapple with the fact that by keeping the coronavirus tests within its own purview, it was severely limiting the numbers who could be tested. It has since allowed private and university laboratories to conduct testing, while also vowing to stock public health labs with sufficient quantities of the coronavirus test.

Still, the lag is evident, robbing epidemiologists of precious days as they seek to contain the spread of the disease.

Private laboratories are expected to intensify their own testing efforts, but as of Monday morning, Mark S. Birenbaum, who heads the National Independent Laboratory Association, said he was uncertain of how many of his members had begun to test for the coronavirus.

“Many have not,” he wrote in a text message.

CDC spokesman Richard Quartarone said that as of Monday evening, the Atlanta-based public health agency had tested 1,707 people. On March 3, that number had been 1,200 people, which means the CDC has tested 507 people in the last week, or about 72 per day.