U.S. SENATE News:
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) have joined 44 Senate Democrats in a letter to Vice President Mike Pence and the Coronavirus Task Force, as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), urging them to publicize a comprehensive and transparent plan to conduct a national inventory of the coronavirus (COVID-19) diagnostic testing supply, publicly release data on testing results, and provide a detailed plan and timeline for addressing future shortages and gaps in the testing supply chain.
As of April 13, the New Mexico Department of Health has publicized 1,245 positive cases of coronavirus of a total of 30,515 tests, resulting in 26 deaths. Navajo Nation has reported nearly 700 cases across three states and outbreaks have emerged in New Mexico Pueblo communities. Despite urgent need, Tribal communities continue to lack the federal resources and authorizations needed to quickly and efficiently test and isolate presumptive positive coronavirus patients.
“Over three weeks after President Trump declared the COVID-19 outbreak a national emergency, we continue to hear from our states and Tribal Nations about the lack of supplies and testing kits to diagnose our constituents for the coronavirus,” the senators wrote. “State departments of health, hospitals, health care providers, and first responders lack the tests and equipment—including personal protective equipment (PPE), testing swabs, and reagents—needed to conduct adequate public health surveillance to contain and stop the spread of coronavirus.
“Widespread diagnostic testing is crucial to controlling the COVID-19 outbreak. In the short term, quickly obtaining test results for hospitalized patients allows hospitals to preserve supplies of PPE and prevents unnecessary quarantines of front-line health care workers and first responders. In the long run, experts have argued that widespread testing will be needed to track and contain COVID-19 cases, allowing communities to slowly lift general social distancing restrictions without putting the public at risk.”
The senators continued, “We urge you to promptly develop a national, real-time, public-facing inventory of COVID-19 diagnostic tests and results. This resource will provide the transparency that our states and Tribal Nations need to anticipate the national testing supply chain and the information that the federal government needs to anticipate and proactively address any testing shortages.”
The senators concluded by asking the Trump administration to answer several questions regarding the methods and availability of nationwide testing and any efforts underway to scale up testing on a nationwide scale.
You can access a copy of the letter here.
