(CNN) Public and private health laboratories throughout the United States and its territories are still unable to meet the demand for Covid-19 testing over supply shortages and may never be able to, even as the Trump administration rolled out a blueprint this week on ramping up testing across the country. It might not ever happen, according to Eric Blank, the chief program officer for the Association of Public Health Laboratories"In my own mind, I'm not convinced that the supply chain will ever keep up with demand, particularly with tweaks in the plans that we're seeing for contact tracing and so on," Blank said at a recent media briefing. Coronavirus testing in the United States has lagged woefully behind the spreading pandemic since the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent out faulty test kits in early February, putting the country at a disadvantage in identifying and verifying where the virus was and who had it, something public health experts have emphasized is critical for reopening society and restoring some semblance of normalcy. "Although the overall amount of tests performed has expanded, the testing environment continues to be resource constrained and supply shortages persist," said Kelly Wroblewski, APHL's director of infectious disease.

Source: CNN April 29, 2020 20:15 UTC