US to need 20 million daily virus tests for reopening

WASHINGTON

As state and federal officials prepare to gradually lift anti-coronavirus measures, a study released Monday suggests that up to 20 million virus tests will be needed daily to reopen the country safely.

Published by the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, the report's estimate well surpasses testing requirements previously released by health experts. A previous study from Harvard indicated 500,000 to 700,000 daily tests would be needed.

But the new report says COVID-19 poses "a profound threat to our democracy, comparable to the Great Depression and World War II."

"What we need to do is much bigger than most people realize. We need to deliver 5 million tests per day by early June to deliver a safe social reopening," the reports authors, which include dozens of thought leaders from across various sectors, says.

"This number will need to increase over time [ideally by late July] to 20 million a day to fully remobilize the economy. We acknowledge that even this number may not be high enough to protect public health," it adds.

It said the benefit of the proposed approach "is that it will prevent cycles of opening up and shutting down," allowing sectors of the economy to reopen while protecting healthcare workers and containing "the virus to levels where it can be effectively managed and treated until we can find a vaccine."

The recommendations come as U.S. President Donald Trump continues to support a rapid re-opening of the U.S. economy, emboldening demonstrators to rally against stay-at-home orders issued by successive state governors.

The Harvard study warned that if social distancing alone is used to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus until a vaccine is developed, the economy will need to be shut down for up to a year-and-a-half, costing trillions of dollars.

"We can instead fully restart the economy by August through a program of massive investment in public health infrastructure, especially diagnostic and serological testing, combined with effective contact tracing-and-warning programs, and supported individual quarantine and/or isolation," it said.

The U.S. is the country hardest-hit by the coronavirus pandemic, with some 778,176 confirmed cases and 41,313 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The virus has spread to 185 countries and regions since it was first detected in Wuhan, China in December.