Coronavirus Test Kits May Yield Inconclusive Results

Some US states are waiting for the CDC to send replacement enzymes necessary for carrying out SARS-CoV-2 assays.

Written byAmy Schleunes

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State laboratories have identified flaws in some of the test kits distributed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in an effort to speed up coronavirus diagnosis nationwide, according to Reuters. California and Georgia confirmed that they are waiting for the CDC to send new reagents while health authorities in Illinois say the kits are working fine and they are proceeding with testing.

Last week, the CDC began shipping roughly 200 kits to laboratories throughout the US and some 200 more to international labs, reports The New York Times. The agency says that 700 to 800 specimens from patients can be tested with each kit.

A trial run in some states produced “inconclusive” results that appear to have been caused by a defective enzyme, Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said during a press conference, according to ...

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Meet the Author

Amy Schleunes
A former intern at The Scientist, Amy studied neurobiology at Cornell University and later earned her MFA in creative writing from the University of Iowa. She is a Los Angeles–based writer, editor, and communications strategist who collaborates on nonfiction books for Harper Collins and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and also teaches writing at Johns Hopkins University CTY. Her favorite projects involve sharing the insights of science and medicine.
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