Article contentThe United States has recorded more than 1,000 deaths a day for five consecutive days and on Friday counted more than 75,000 new cases of the virus, fuelling concerns the pandemic shows no signs of easing. Despite the fact that the U.S. has more COVID-19 testing capacity than any other country, some laboratories have been overwhelmed and many patients are waiting a week or more for results. Try refreshing your browser, or COVID-19: U.S. records 1,000 deaths a day as testing remains below capacity Back to videoAt the heart of the crisis is a reliance by public and private labs on automated testing equipment that locks them in to using proprietary chemical kits and other tools made by a handful of manufacturers. A few companies – Cepheid, Hologic Inc, Roche and Abbott Laboratories – dominate this market. Their machines run on chemical kits and disposable plastic parts like sample plates and pipettes that only they sell, much like branded printer cartridges.

Source: National Post July 27, 2020 16:21 UTC