Washington State, home of Microsoft’s Seattle, is one of the states hardest hit by the coronavirus epidemic in the United States. However, the founder of the firm Bill Gates is about to offer via his foundation home test kits, reports The Seattle Times. The goal: to perform thousands of tests per day. These should be available in the coming weeks.
Why it’s critical. Across the Atlantic, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) had developed their own diagnostic protocol: President Trump had refused without explanation the WHO test in February. But this test gave sometimes wrong results. Today, the number of patients tested remains incredibly low in the United States, which US health professionals deplore. The country has as many deaths (19) from the disease as France, with more than half the number of cases confirmed by diagnoses (564 against 1209). The example of South Korea (the second most affected country with 7,498 cases, but only 50 dead) shows the value of undertaking massive tests to control the epidemic.
