'A hot mess': Americans face testing delays as virus surges

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - With a cough and shortness of breath, it took Austin, Texas, resident Sam Lee three tries to get a COVID-19 test. The first time, he showed up an hour before the public testing site was set to close and was told they had reached capacity.

As the coronavirus surges in the United States, testing capacity and efficiency is not up to par. While some sites are running out of testing kits, other labs lack materials and employees to process the swabs. This has left many Americans frustrated and out of luck when trying to get tested. According to an Associated Press analysis, testing in the United States is reaching around 640,000 tests per day on average, compared to around 518,000 two weeks previously. This uptake in testing is much needed to account for the more than 50,000 reported new confirmed infections per day. Dr. Ashish Jha, director of Harvard’s Global Health Institute voiced her disappointment in the nation’s testing abilities; “I am stunned that as a nation, six months into this pandemic, we still can’t figure out how to deliver testing to the American people when they need it.”