Why is California still waiting for nearly 60,000 coronavirus test results?
Nearly two-thirds of the coronavirus tests conducted in California are still awaiting results – in part due to an initial bottleneck at a single laboratory – leaving medical providers and patients in the dark, and health officials without the information they need to understand the disease’s spread.
Of approximately 94,800 tests conducted in California, about 59,500 results were still pending as of Thursday, even as the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, promised to “substantially increase” testing this week.
The nation’s most populous state has been among the worst hit by the virus, but testing efforts have been hampered not only by the processing backlog but by a shortage of testing kits themselves. California ranks 39th out of 50 states and the District of Columbia in per capita testing, according to data collected by the Covid Tracking Project.
