THREAD: Very significant approval. Will substantially increase patient testing capacity by end of next week by tens of thousands a day across all labs, commercial and academic. Will take time for labs to stand up these platforms; should roll out next week apple.news/AKvqqClDARUyJ_…
We are likely to find that spread is far more distributed in communities across U.S. and while total case count may still be in high thousands or probably low ten thousands, the widespread seeding make an epidemic inevitable. Aggressive social distancing now must be focus.
We must also prepare hospitals for a surge in cases requiring advanced care that could start to become obvious in few weeks as people currently being infected start to develop complications. Time to hospitalization is more than a week so will take time for these cases to present.
We must focus on slowing spread through tough mitigation steps and reducing the scope and severity of the epidemic by good medical planning. Every day, every hour, is critical to preparedness.
The steps already being taken by businesses, cities, states to implement mitigation measures to achieve social distancing will have a tangible impact on the epidemiology of spread. Private industry, states like New York, have been leading the way with these aggressive measures.
