South Korea is sending about 600,000 coronavirus test kits to the United States following agreements brokered by the two governments and three private companies.
“We are grateful to the Republic of Korea for making the purchase of these tests possible, and for its assistance to the people of the United States in our fight against COVID-19,” a State Department spokeswoman told the Washington Examiner.
The test kits “have been airlifted” from South Korea and are expected to arrive by Wednesday, according to the State Department. The deal helps address a testing shortfall that has plagued the American response to the coronavirus outbreak since the contagion reached crisis proportions in the U.S.
“The United States has now conducted nearly 3 million tests for the virus,” President Trump said Monday. “We are performing approximately 150,000 tests every single day, and our rate of testing is especially high in areas hardest hit by the virus if you look.”
The tests play an essential role in managing the outbreak, according to public health officials who called for widespread social distancing when it became apparent that the U.S. didn’t have enough tests on hand to identify coronavirus patients. Healthcare workers are expected to be testing at a rate of 1 million tests per week in the coming days, but that’s still not enough to end social distancing and repair the U.S. economy, according to a former Trump administration official.
“Getting to the point where you have a 2 [million to] 3 million test capacity per week — which is probably where you need to be initially as you do this transition — is going to be very hard,” former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Tuesday. “We’ve tapped out the available platforms, and now we’re dependent upon creating new platforms and new supply chains to fuel those platforms.”
The lack of supplies to manufacture new test kits increases the value of the test kits inbound from South Korea. The shipment comes less than a month after a phone conversation in which Trump asked South Korean President Moon Jae-in, whose country has been among the most successful in containing the virus, to “provide medical equipment and supplies” to the U.S.
“During times of crisis, close coordination among like-minded allies and private sector partners is key to developing a swift and effective response,” the State Department spokeswoman said. “As our linchpin ally in the Indo-Pacific, the Republic of Korea has been on the front lines of this pandemic, and we thank them for their collaboration in combating this disease in an open and transparent manner.”
