California appears to be flattening the curve. But its testing lags behind other states
The Guardian’s Maanvi Singh reports from Oakland with Sam Levin in Los Angeles
California has not seen the surge in coronavirus cases that have overwhelmed cities like New York and Detroit in the past week, which suggests that the state’s early and restrictive shelter-in-place orders could be slowing the virus’ spread. But experts say delays in testing have limited the understanding of the outbreak and have hindered containment efforts.
As of Tuesday, more than 86,100 tests had been administered in the state, and of those, 57,400 results were still pending. By comparison, New York, which has about half the population of California, has processed more than 200,000 tests. Washington state, which has less than a fifth of California’s population, has processed 65,462 tests.
Testing efforts in California have been set back due to a lack of swabs, vials and media for collecting patient samples, as well as a shortage of kits and bottlenecks at labs.