A covid19 view from Connecticut
Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
Here's a glimpse of the covid19 situation in Connecticut this morning:
"As of Thursday morning, the state’s public health lab in Rocky Hill had completed just 90 of the 1,200 tests it has received from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"'That’s horrible. We are vastly, vastly, vastly under-testing at this point,' Dr. Howard P. Forman, director of the health care management program at Yale School of Public Health, said Wednesday. 'Without testing, you don’t know what prevalence of disease you have in the community.'"
Later in the article it becomes more stark.
"Because the state lab only had the staffing capacity to run 20 tests a day, a decision was made to only test those whose condition had deteriorated enough to be hospitalized....
"By next week, the state lab will have more staff trained so it can complete 60 tests daily. A cohort of nine employees will take turns working three shifts, 7 days a week. But that’s the maximum capacity the state lab will have going forward."
60 tests a day isn't going to help us - we probably need 1,000 tests a day.
When you "lean" out the lab staff, cut costs, reduce funding for public health labs, and labs in general, you set yourself up for these kind of failures. We reap what we sow.
-----
Stay Informed
When you subscribe to the blog, we will send you an e-mail when there are new updates on the site so you wouldn't miss them.
Comments