States can ramp up high-quality screenings faster with federal coordination.
Congress included $25 billion for coronavirus testing in its recent aid package, and told the Trump administration to quickly expand testing capacity, develop better and faster tests, and create a “strategic testing plan” for the country. It’s frustrating that lawmakers needed to spell this out. The White House should have long recognized its responsibility to support and coordinate state, local and private efforts.
Months into the pandemic, testing capacity in the U. S. has improved but is too small to show how quickly the virus is spreading. This makes reopening the economy hazardous. Even when the rate of transmission has fallen enough to allow some easing of restrictions, it won’t be safe to let people congregate until new infections can be quickly identified and isolated. There’s a risk, otherwise, of new viral flare-ups and even a second and worse wave of the disease this fall. Once Covid-19 is eventually brought to heel, a national testing strategy will be needed to confront the next emerging virus.
Granted, even though President Donald Trump told the states that testing was their job, the White House has helped here and there — boosting the production of swabs, rustling up test kits and supplies, and increasing payments to laboratories to enable them to expand.
