Coronavirus Live Updates: States Plead for More Testing and Congress Considers More Aid

In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen ​Whitmer, also a Democrat, said the state could perform “double or triple” the number of tests it is doing now “if we had the swabs or reagents.” ​Gov. Larry Hogan​ of Maryland, a Republican, said that it was “absolutely false” to claim that governors were not acting aggressively enough to pursue as much testing as possible.

“It’s not accurate to say there’s plenty of testing out there, and the governors should just get it done,” Mr. Hogan ​said​ on “State of the Union​.”​ “That’s just not being straightforward.”

There are currently about 150,000 diagnostic tests conducted each day, according to the Covid Tracking Project. Researchers at Harvard estimated last week that to ease restrictions, the nation needed to at least triple that pace of testing.

Separately, New York will test 3,000 people starting on Monday to see if they have coronavirus antibodies, which would be a signal they have already had the virus.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Sunday that antibody testing would be key in guiding the reopening of the state, because finding the number of people who had developed antibodies to the virus would help authorities understand the full extent of its spread.

“That will tell us for the first time what percent of the population actually has had the coronavirus and is now — at least short term — immune to the virus,” Mr. Cuomo said. “This will be the first true snapshot of what we’re really dealing with.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/20/us/coronavirus-updates.html