As New Jersey's caseload grew, so did reports of symptomatic people claiming that they couldn't get tested; of overly strict testing standards excluding all but the sickest individuals; and of waits of more than a week for results.
On March 20, the first visible sign of the testing logjam appeared when a drive-through site-set up by FEMA at the Murphy administration's request-had to close after a few hours because it ran out of tests.
The state's largest paper, the Star-Ledger, crunched the numbers and found that Jersey ranked only 19th in testing on a per-capita basis, far behind not only New York but also many other states with significantly smaller outbreaks, including Massachusetts and New Mexico.
Though states had been set back by missteps by the Centers for Disease Control, including faulty tests, many had managed to ramp up testing anyway, contracting with private labs or getting local medical facilities to create and distribute their own tests.
On March 30, under the headline "Coronavirus Testing Debacle," NJ Advance Media Group newspapers detailed how hundreds of symptomatic people, many of whom had gone to hospital emergency rooms, were denied testing because the state was still using outdated criteria.
Meantime, his health commissioner claimed that the crowds at testing sites were caused by too many people wanting tests when they weren't really sick.
As April wound to a close, NJ.com reported that counties that had attempted to get their own testing going were in bidding wars with one another for supplies because the state still lacked "a cohesive plan for widespread testing." Until Governor Murphy's administration gets its act together, it's anyone's guess when the Garden State can start doing business again.
https://www.city-journal.org/new-jersey-coronavirus-testing
On March 20, the first visible sign of the testing logjam appeared when a drive-through site-set up by FEMA at the Murphy administration's request-had to close after a few hours because it ran out of tests.
The state's largest paper, the Star-Ledger, crunched the numbers and found that Jersey ranked only 19th in testing on a per-capita basis, far behind not only New York but also many other states with significantly smaller outbreaks, including Massachusetts and New Mexico.
Though states had been set back by missteps by the Centers for Disease Control, including faulty tests, many had managed to ramp up testing anyway, contracting with private labs or getting local medical facilities to create and distribute their own tests.
On March 30, under the headline "Coronavirus Testing Debacle," NJ Advance Media Group newspapers detailed how hundreds of symptomatic people, many of whom had gone to hospital emergency rooms, were denied testing because the state was still using outdated criteria.
Meantime, his health commissioner claimed that the crowds at testing sites were caused by too many people wanting tests when they weren't really sick.
As April wound to a close, NJ.com reported that counties that had attempted to get their own testing going were in bidding wars with one another for supplies because the state still lacked "a cohesive plan for widespread testing." Until Governor Murphy's administration gets its act together, it's anyone's guess when the Garden State can start doing business again.
https://www.city-journal.org/new-jersey-coronavirus-testing
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