US coronavirus testing threatened by shortage of critical lab materials – Politico

Early on Wednesday morning in Asia, Politico raised doubts on US Vice President Mike Pence's previous announcements that their labs have enough of testing kits, equipment as far as the coronavirus (COVID-19) is concerned.

Key quotes

A looming shortage in lab materials is threatening to delay coronavirus test results and cause officials to undercount the number of Americans with the virus.

CDC Director Robert Redfield told POLITICO on Tuesday that he is not confident that U.S. labs have an adequate stock of the supplies used to extract genetic material from any virus in a patient’s sample — a critical step in coronavirus testing.

The coronavirus task force convened by the White House is also aware of the shortages, and one official said members are working on it.

Public health labs across the U.S. have tested more than 5,000 people, according to the Trump administration. HHS Secretary Alex Azar told lawmakers on Tuesday that U.S. labs’ capacity could grow to 10,000-20,000 people per day by the end of the week.

FX implications

With the recent shift in COVID-19 updates, market’s risk-tone fails to extend the previous day’s optimism. That said, S&P 500 Futures slips 1.15% to 2,833 despite the US 10-year treasury yields staying positive around 0.77% by the press time.