Quick thread on testing (1 of 4)

Between April 2 and April 8, we averaged 148K tests/day

Between April 9 and April 15 (today), we averaged 147K tests/day

% positive declined a bit.

Another week. Another week of little to no progress?

What's going on?

2 of 4

Have been calling lab directors, state health officials, front line staff at around the country to learn what is going on.

What's holding us back?

Short list:

1. Still big shortages of standard stuff: PPEs, infrastructure for testing, reagents, swabs!!

Why shortages (cont):

2 Some places still have restrictive testing policies despite more test availability. Leads to idle capacity

3 Low reimbursement means some labs can't afford to test. New policy change today should help

4 Some states don't know their testing bottlenecks

Why is the issue of testing still so important?

Because we're talking about when to open up

And everyone agrees we need robust testing -- likely 3X what we have now.

So if we want to open up the country and REMAIN open, testing central area where we need serious progress.

Fin