By Jason Murdock
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White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx has said turnaround times for COVID-19 test results are "too long" in some states that have been worst affected by outbreaks of the disease.
As new cases continue to surge across the country, Birx said in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday the Trump administration is now asking states with fewer cases to boost "pool" testing, when multiple samples are tested in one batch.
Taking that approach in the Northeast and Midwest, she said, would free up tests for states now under heavy strain, where it can take multiple days to get a result. "The turnaround times, particularly across the South, are too long," Dr. Birx said.
It has been another week of unwanted records for U.S. health officials, with California overtaking New York as having the most number of cases since the pandemic first worsened in March. California reported over 12,000 cases on Wednesday alone. With hospitalizations also rising, the Texas Department of State Health Services reported its death toll hit an all-time high, with 197 fatalities linked to the virus.
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Dr. Birx suggested in March that COVID-19 test results would be received in under 36 hours, but told Fox on Wednesday the sheer number of new cases had disrupted that flow.
She said: "We need the Northeast to help us by doing pooling, they have test positivities often under three percent, we think they are in the perfect situation to combine three of four different tests into one tube to run it, that increases our capacity by four."
Dr. Birx said commercial labs, including Roche, LabCorp and Quest, should look at pooling in the Midwest and the Northeast "so we can make more tests available."
Data analysis conducted by The New York Times shows the influx of fresh cases is not solely linked to an increase of testing, as has been claimed by president Trump.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on its website the U.S. has recorded over 51,600,000 tests, with 4,878,379 positive, at roughly 10 percent.
"That's far more than any country in the world," Trump said during a press briefing on Wednesday. "India is second, we believe. We think—1.4 billion people; that's about 12 million tests."
The following graphic, provided by analytics firm Statista, shows U.S. states with the most COVID-19 cases as of July 23.
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There is no cure or vaccine for the novel coronavirus, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan last year, although trials across the world are ongoing.
On Wednesday, Dr. Birx said it is "encouraging" to know current evidence suggests there is not a high level of reinfection among those who have tested positive.
She said: "We have a lot of cases...and we don't see this high level of reinfection. What assures me is we know the majority of people around the world, once they are infected they amount an immune response—what we call the antibody response and the cellular response—and they clear the virus. That is the roadmap for vaccine development."
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