California reported a bump in coronavirus cases on Monday as neighborhood infections continue to spread, tests become more widely available and doctors catch up with a backlog in detecting.
There are two new cases in Santa Clara County, one in San Mateo County, one in Placer County and one in Sonoma County. Of all U.S. locales, California and Washington are hardest struck: 29 of the 43 domestic cases are in those 2 states.
At a White House press conference, officials assured the country that the risk remains low– but that the variety of cases will climb up as testing increases.
” We will continue to see these cases as a repercussion of health departments doing their job,” said Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Illness Control and Avoidance, at Monday’s press instruction.
But there still aren’t sufficient tests for everyone– so just people who satisfy the federal government’s strict requirements are being checked. If people with flu-like signs wish to be checked, they won’t qualify– unless they’re hospitalized or have a history of exposure to the virus.
” This is irritating for service providers. It’s irritating for the general public. I definitely understand that,” stated Paul Biddinger of Harvard’s T. H. Chan School of Public Health at a school briefing. “There’s a great deal of anxiety out there, and fever and respiratory illness.
” Right now we have so few tests offered that we have to focus on testing for serious disease,” he said.
The California Department of Public Health did not respond to concerns about the availability of tests. It now just shows the number of confirmed cases.
” There’s probably low-thousands of cases in this nation that we now require to turn over the card on,” stated Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, on Twitter.