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Research scientists Dawn Richards and Elizabeth Forrester watched concern grow as a new coronavirus causing pneumonia-like illness emerged in China, then spread to Europe and the United States.
The worry they saw from their students at Baylor School mixed with chatter they began hearing around town. Someone’s friend has a cough. A family member developed a fever. But even as the virus reached Chattanooga, those people could not get answers to their burning question: Do I have COVID-19?
Just over a week ago, on March 13, Hamilton County confirmed its first case of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. As of Saturday, Hamilton County had confirmed eight cases total. But lessons learned from other states and countries suggest that the virus has likely been circulating locally for weeks, with far more cases going undetected than actually reported.
Whereas some countries – such as South Korea and Singapore – quickly developed testing mechanisms to aggressively track where the virus was spreading, testing efforts in the United States have been plagued by delayed production, limited supplies, stringent criteria and bureaucratic red tape. To compound the issue, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initially produced some testing kits with a faulty component. Now, communities across the country are scrambling.