Written by Michael Palomba
The coronavirus continues to infect people throughout the country and while we have heard some good news, like New York possibly reaching its apex, the pandemic is still far from over.
Governor Gavin Newsom said that the state will increase testing fivefold in the next few weeks, part of an effort to correct a massive testing backlog.
Newsom’s response to the pandemic has been pretty good, not perfect, but far from bad. As of late, he’s taking personal responsibility for the state’s shortcomings. “Let me just acknowledge at the outset that the testing space has been a challenging one for us, and I own that,” he said. “I have a responsibility as your governor to do better and do more testing in the state of California.”
In the next few weeks, Californians can expect the following:
- five to seven high-capacity testing hubs around the state through a partnership with UC San Diego and UC Davis.
- A Stanford University test that determines if someone has developed an immune response to COVID-19.
- A five minute test from Abbott Laboratories, which has committed to 75 testing sites in California.
Newsom said he wants to expand testing “exponentially” across the state. “I’m not going to explain away why we didn’t do more and better,” Newsom said. “All I can say is we’re going to do more and better, and we own that, I own that.”
As of April 7, there are 17,460 confirmed cases, up about 1,100 from the day before—with a total of 434 deaths. Cases are continuing to rise at this point, and 53 out of 58 counties have confirmed cases.
Still, California’s totals are far below New York. Some experts believe, however, that this is at least partially explained by the delays in testing.
