TUESDAY, March 10, 2020 (HealthDay News) — Millions of much-needed testing kits for COVID-19 are on the way to clinics and labs nationwide, Vice President Mike Pence told reporters during a White House briefing Monday evening.
Pence heads the Trump Administration coronavirus task force. He said the group reached out to governors from 47 states on Monday and was “able to confirm with them that testing is now available in all state labs in every state in the country.”
“Over a million tests have been distributed,” Pence said, and “before the end of this week, another 4 million tests will be distributed.”
Furthermore, major medical testing companies such as LabCorp and Quest have also “brought a test forward and are taking that to market effective today,” Pence said. He added that, “with the deployment of the commercial labs we literally are going to see a dramatic increase in the availability of testing.”
Pence said last week that all restrictions on coronavirus testing would be lifted and the costs of testing would be covered by all forms of health insurance.
The World Health Organization has now reported more than 113,672 cases of coronavirus worldwide, including more than 4,012 deaths, the vast majority of which have occurred in China, where the outbreak began.
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