Media Coverage

Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips recalled the day the first U.S. patient infected with COVID-19, a 35-year-old man from Snohomish County in Washington state, had taken a “turn for the worse.”[CR-LF][CR-LF]“He was day nine in his course and he actually started going downhill, started getting worse,” said Compton-Phillips, chief clinical officer of Providence St. Joseph Health, where the patient was treated.[CR-LF][CR-LF]At first, the patient only had common cold-like symptoms, Compton-Phillips said. But very quickly he began to have shortness of breath and a cough, she said. His X-ray also showed viral pneumonia. He needed supplemental oxygen and had to be put on an experimental antiviral treatment.

Connecticut lawmakers will begin the daunting task Friday of crafting a strategy to mobilize the public and private sectors to combat the coronavirus – an effort that comes as state health officials acknowledged hundreds of residents are being monitored for the illness.[CR-LF][CR-LF]The state Department of Public Health is aware of 200 people currently being monitored for the virus, said Max Reiss, spokesman for Gov. Ned Lamont. The governor was briefed Thursday by Renee Coleman-Mitchell, commissioner of the state Department of Public Health, and Dr. Matthew Carter, the state epidemiologist.

A major health insurance trade group is pledging its member plans will cover doctor-ordered testing for the coronavirus amid rising confusion and concern about who will bear the cost of care in an outbreak.

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez on Thursday joined with 14 Senate colleagues to urge U.S. employers to commit not to penalize workers for following recommended health procedures in order to protect the public from further spread of the coronavirus.[CR-LF][CR-LF]In a letter to major industry groups, which together represent thousands of companies employing millions of Americans, the senators wrote: “As the United States mobilizes to respond to the recent outbreak and spread of COVID-19, the novel coronavirus, we write to urge your member companies to prioritize their employees’ health, economic well-being, and security during this response. The companies you represent are some of the largest, most high profile companies in the United States. The broader business community watches their actions closely and we believe they have an opportunity, and an obligation, to lead in this moment.”

U.S. lab operator Quest Diagnostics Inc said on Thursday it was launching a test service for coronavirus and can start testing from next week.[CR-LF][CR-LF]On Wednesday, the Trump administration met with private lab test developers to discuss increasing the availability of diagnostics.[CR-LF][CR-LF]The company said test services will be provided as a laboratory developed test, pending review by the FDA under emergency-use authorization.

Trump administration officials doubled down on their promise to deliver 1 million tests for the coronavirus this week as states reported limited testing supplies and federal lawmakers expressed doubts about the government's timeline.[CR-LF][CR-LF]Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told reporters Thursday that a private manufacturer authorized to make the tests expects to ship the kits to U.S. laboratories by week's end. That amounts to the capacity to test roughly 400,000 people, given that it takes multiple test samples to a confirm a result.

Secaucus-based Quest Diagnostics, a provider of diagnostic information services, said Thursday it will launch a coronavirus test service.[CR-LF][CR-LF]The new test service aids the presumptive detection of nucleic acid in respiratory specimens of patients meeting CDC’s clinical criteria for COVID-19 testing. Quest will be in position to receive specimens for testing and begin to provide testing on March 9.

Quest Diagnostics, one of the largest commercial lab companies in the country, announced on Thursday it is launching a laboratory-developed test for the coronavirus next week, but it is unclear how many tests it will be able to run or how much it will cost. A spokesperson told POLITICO the test is in the process of being validated at Quest’s lab in San Juan Capistrano, Calif.

Quest Diagnostics plans to launch a nationwide testing service for the novel coronavirus next week—moving forward with its own assay after the FDA gave companies the green light to proceed with validated tests before receiving any agency review or authorizations.[CR-LF][CR-LF]The company described its lab-developed, molecular-based test as designed to detect viral RNA in respiratory specimens, and that it will be used for presumptive detection of the disease known as COVID-19.[CR-LF][CR-LF]Quest said it plans to begin receiving and testing specimens March 9, and will work to submit its test for agency review within the mandated 15-day timeline.

On Thursday, the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. that had been reported to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) swelled to 100 -- and next week, that number is probably going to climb much further. That's because the country's second-largest provider of clinical testing services, Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX), has announced plans to begin helping the CDC unwind its backlog of coronavirus tests.[CR-LF][CR-LF]During January and February, U.S. healthcare officials isolated some people at risk of carrying SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Unfortunately, a shortage of fully approved testing kits means that it's still unclear how many infected individuals may have slipped through the cracks. It's fairly likely to be a large number. In the past two months, just a few thousand people with suspected cases of COVID-19 were actually tested in the U.S.