US state of Utah telling most patients not to seek testing: Report

The US state of Utah has reportedly told covid-19 patients not to seek testing due to shortage of medical supplies.

This is while state officials had voiced optimism about handling the pandemic not long after the first US coronavirus case was reported last month, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Wednesday.

“We know that these measures taken — isolation of people who are ill, and quarantining those who have been exposed before they become ill so you can prevent their spreading — this is effective,” said Joseph Miner, the executive director of the Utah Department of Health in early February.

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Facing a shortage of coronavirus testing supplies made state epidemiologist Angela Dunn appear in a news briefing Tuesday to ask citizens not to seek testing.

“Testing and identifying those who have covid-19 is an essential piece in slowing the pandemic. Unfortunately we are faced with infrastructure and logistical challenges that prevent us from being able to test everybody. … We have limited supplies to run the test and we have limited personal protective equipment for providers,”Dunn said. “There's not a win in that situation… It’s just what we have to do.”

The state epidemiologist further called for protection of the “high-risk populations, such as the elderly or those in long-term care facilities” in the state with over 50 registered coronavirus cases so far.

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“The data does guide our interventions,” Dunn said. “However, we do know that more testing would allow us to have better data to more effectively target those interventions. In the absence of that data, we are working on distancing measures.”

As Utah, like other American states, rushed to grapple with repercussions of the pandemic as well as the economic recession, Florida was refusing to close beaches to slow the spread.

”What we're going to be doing for the statewide floor for beaches, we're going to be applying the CDC guidance of no group on a beach more than 10 and you have to have distance apart if you're going to be out there," DeSantis said. "So that applies statewide.”

He added that it is "not uniform throughout the state that you're seeing massive crowds at beaches.”

The Sunshine State has 192 confirmed cases of the coronavirus as well as five deaths in the outbreak amid concerns that the beaches could increase infections.

The administration of US President Donald Trump has been highly criticized over its insufficient response to the pandemic, which is spreading fast across the world.

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