More than half of U.S. states will have to significantly step up their COVID-19 testing to even consider starting to relax stay-at-home orders after May 1, according to a new analysis by Harvard researchers and STAT.
The analysis shows that as the U.S. tries to move beyond its months-long coronavirus testing debacle — faulty tests, shortages of tests, and guidelines that excluded many people who should have been tested to mitigate the outbreak — it is at risk of fumbling the next challenge: testing enough people to determine which cities and states can safely reopen and stay open. Doing so will require the ability to catch reappearances of the coronavirus before it again spreads uncontrollably.
Last week, California said it aims to conduct 25,000 tests a day by the end of April, up from an average of about 14,000 in recent days. The Harvard team calculated the Golden State needs about 26,000, suggesting that if California hits its goal it could well be on track to safely reopen.
Read the full story from STAT here.