The United States of America reported 8.9 lakh new Covid cases on January 13. As the pandemic rages in the country, 8.4 lakh deaths have been reported so far, with over 2200 Covid deaths on January 13 alone.
On Monday, January 10, the USA had reported 1.35 million, (13.5 lakh) Covid cases on a single day. That was the highest single-day tally reported from one country so far in the pandemic.
As the cases rise, the USA is also facing an acute shortage of test kits. There are many posts on social media highlighting the long queues and delays in getting a test done. Some people have reported that despite paying hundreds of dollars for the tests and booking days, even weeks in advance, they are unable to have a test done.
Disappointed with @CovidClinic operation & lack of responsiveness . Despite booking a week in advance, paying $ 150 for RTPCR test, when I land up for the test, they say they have run out of tests, can't do testing. I have an international flight to catch. #COVID19 #TestCovid pic.twitter.com/hHab6Tq2KZ
— K.Ganesh (@ganeshk03) January 10, 2022
Entrepreneur K Ganesh had shared that he has been waiting for over a week to get a test done and has paid 150$ for an RTPCR test.
The delay is not just in rapid result tests that cost a lot of money. Several reports have emerged highlighting how low-cost home tests are also becoming inaccessible to a large number of people. A woman in Texas and her family reportedly had to wait in line for hours and return home without a test for three days in a row, as reported by wkyt.com. On the 4th day, when they arrived at 5 am at the test site that opens at 8 am, they found 70 cars already waiting.
Soon after the holidays, it was reported that low-cost at-home tests had vanished from shelves in drug stores. People thronging to testing sites reported that they have to wait for days before they can get a test done. In a report by Kera, a woman in Dallas stated she waited for five days to get her test results from a testing site, but the result never came. Finally, she managed to find a home testing kit because her son had to produce a Covid negative report to return to school.
The same report stated that Harris County in texas had voted to immediately purchase 65,000 test kits at a cost of over 1.8 million$ for schools and county employees, highlighting the shortage.
Nationwide Covid testing company faces investigation
In another development, the Centre for Covid Control, a nationwide testing company, has been facing investigations from the Oregon Department of Justice. The company has recently announced that its testing sites spread across the country will remain shut for a week.
The company has testing sites across 300 locations in the USA and two locations, Massachusetts and Washington ordered a shut down on their testing sites following rampant complaints. The company is facing investigations over alleged violations of the Unfair Trade Practices Act.
The company has also been accused of giving false negative reports, providing incorrect directions for customers self-administering rapids tests, not reporting test results to state govts and failing to track complaints. Kelly Bauer, a journalist, reported that Akber Syed, who is reportedly the leader of the company, had posted images on social media flaunting the luxury cars that he had bought with ‘Covid money’.
The investigation also mentions that the Centre for Covid Control has wasted over 40,000 test kits in its labs.
People going to Center for COVID Control sites have reported getting negatives — only to get a positive elsewhere. Others have never gotten results, or gotten them so late the test was useless. Some people who didn’t even test were still sent results.https://t.co/vbewY4e7QM pic.twitter.com/wZzRGfCw7l
— Kelly Bauer (@BauerJournalism) January 13, 2022
Recently, US President Joe Biden had announced that his administration is ordering 500 million more test kits. The Biden administration stated that they will soon launch a website where citizens can order test kits online. However, it is not clear when the said site will be operational. Biden had also stated that 6 federal teams will be dispatched to help overwhelmed state hospitals.
