The Trump administration announced that drive-through coronavirus testing sites will open this week in each state, altogether able to test tens of thousands each week.
“We believe we’ve created a model base on the public health and the FEMA system that is optimized that can be used for drive-through or potentially walk-through,” Adm. Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary for health and head of the Public Health Service, said at a White House press conference Sunday.
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Giroir said the administration is also working with private retail companies to open drive-through testing centers in parking lots, and about 2,000 new labs will be able to process tests that can produce results within hours.
“We will start shipping gear, stuff, tomorrow,” Giroir said. “We will start deploying officers tomorrow and Tuesday.”
The sites, Giroir said, will begin to open within the week at the direction of state governments with backing from the federal government. They will be able to test 2,000 to 4,000 people per day, he said, on top of other forms of testing.
The administration has been criticized for failing to make testing widely available. The number of tests administered in South Korea, Italy, and other countries seeing the largest outbreaks dwarfed those conducted in the U.S. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, acknowledged last week that lack of accessible tests “is a failing.”
Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the coronavirus response coordinator for the White House, said that the increase in testing will entail a spike in reported cases.
“For those of you who watched China reporting, remember when they changed their definition and all of a sudden there was that blip in their curve? We are going to see that; we are going to see a spike as more and more people have access,” Birx said.
Though members of the task force touted improved access to testing, they cautioned that the peak of the outbreak is yet to come. Fauci said Sunday that the peak of the outbreak is yet to come.
“The worst is just ahead for us; it is how we respond to that challenge that’s going to determine what that ultimate endpoint is going to be,” Fauci said. “We have a very very critical point now … this window that we’re in is going to be very important for us to stay ahead of this curve.”
