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As Deaths Mount, China Tries to Speed Up Coronavirus Testing

China is racing to screen patients in Hubei Province for Wuhan coronavirus, acknowledging that delays in diagnosing the virus are a major obstacle to controlling the epidemic. A major bottleneck has been a shortage of nucleic acid testing kits used to confirm the presence of the coronavirus. The Chinese government's latest edition of its national diagnosis and treatment plan includes the recommendation that doctors in the province should use CT scans to make a clinical diagnosis of suspected infections. The testing kits would then be used to confirm the coronavirus infection. In a study published in Radiology, researchers found that out of 21 patients with the coronavirus in China last month, three initially had normal chest CT scans. "We can't rely on CT alone to fully exclude presence of the virus," said the study's lead author, Michael Chung, assistant professor in the Department of Diagnostic, Interventional and Molecular Radiology at Mount Sinai Health System in New York. Click here for the latest research on the outbreak from RSNA.

From "As Deaths Mount, China Tries to Speed Up Coronavirus Testing" New York Times (02/10/20