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Where are the tests? Coroners worry Covid-19 test shortages could lead to uncounted deaths
HOW CAN THERE STILL BE SHORTAGES???????
(CNN) - Jill Romann, the coroner in Douglas County, Colorado, was so desperate for coronavirus tests that she began calling hospitals in the middle of the night to avoid management, begging whoever was on duty for one or two test kits.
Her total collection reached about 13 before the hospitals caught on and shut her down.
She asked the state health department for help getting the tests needed to determine whether deaths were linked to the virus. But she said the agency told her it was not providing them to coroners because it was prioritizing the tests for the living. She hasn't been able to get the supplies she needs from private labs either.
"If you die in my county, I will not know if you died of Covid-19," Romann said. "I will, however, be able to tell if you legally smoked pot."
Other death investigators are equally frustrated and worried about coronavirus deaths being missed. A coroner in Wyoming, the only state that still hasn't reported any deaths due to the virus, said he seriously doubts its official death count, and told CNN he hasn't been able to test a number of suspected cases. And an Ohio coroner said she believes at least four deaths in her county have already been left uncounted.
Her total collection reached about 13 before the hospitals caught on and shut her down.
She asked the state health department for help getting the tests needed to determine whether deaths were linked to the virus. But she said the agency told her it was not providing them to coroners because it was prioritizing the tests for the living. She hasn't been able to get the supplies she needs from private labs either.
"If you die in my county, I will not know if you died of Covid-19," Romann said. "I will, however, be able to tell if you legally smoked pot."
Other death investigators are equally frustrated and worried about coronavirus deaths being missed. A coroner in Wyoming, the only state that still hasn't reported any deaths due to the virus, said he seriously doubts its official death count, and told CNN he hasn't been able to test a number of suspected cases. And an Ohio coroner said she believes at least four deaths in her county have already been left uncounted.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/06/health/coronavirus-coroners-uncounted-deaths-invs/index.html
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