Trump administration sends mixed signals on testing

WASHINGTON » The Trump administration sent mixed signals Tuesday about how quickly testing for the coronavirus would ramp up, stressing that close to 1 million coronavirus tests should be available this week but also that the number of tests to be administered remained unknown.

Dr. Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said at a Senate hearing that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was working with a private manufacturer to drastically increase the testing capacity of laboratories across the nation.

White House officials, however, stressed that the number of tests actually administered could be considerably lower. When Hahn was asked to clarify, he said that he was hearing from private manufacturers that 2,500 test kits could be available by the end of the week, with each kit capable of 500 tests.

The FDA has said Hahn was taking into account the anticipated production of test kits by Integrated DNA Technologies, which is now selling kits to the federal government and other buyers. But that would not increase the capacity of individual labs to perform the tests.

The confusion typified the struggle by the Trump administration to project confidence and progress without misleading the public about the virus’ spread. New infections in San Mateo County; Westchester County, New York; and Fulton County, Georgia, since Monday evening made clear coronavirus was spreading in the sprawl of America’s largest urban centers and was no longer tethered to international travelers.

The number of tests that will be administered in the coming days could be substantially lower than the projection Hahn had offered. A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services said Monday that public health labs currently can test 15,000 people and could test up to 75,000 by the end of the week, numbers that fall well short of what Hahn suggested could result from private manufacturing.