CDC Botched Coronavirus Testing Kits: Report

ATLANTA, GA — Testing kits for the new coronavirus were reportedly contaminated at a lab for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, causing delays in the nation's response to the coronavirus pandemic. Officials attributed the issues to problems with the quality control, according to the Washington Post.

The first case of the virus was reported in the United States Jan. 22, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In late February a Food and Drug Administration official went to the CDC labs after multiple states reported false positives from the tests and after a month determined there was a manufacturing issue, prompting the administration to order the CDC to stop making its own tests.

By mid-March, public health experts said testing delays meant the virus had likely already spread far wider than government officials previously confirmed, according to the Associated Press.

There are more than 690,000 cases and more than 35,000 deaths nationwide from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, as of Saturday, April 18, the CDC reports.

Read the full report from The Washington Post.

See Also:

• On The Front Lines Of Developing A Test For The Coronavirus
• CDC Coronavirus Testing Decision Likely To Haunt Nation For Months To Come
• The FDA Is Forcing The CDC To Waste Time Double Testing Some Coronavirus Cases