Feb 26, 2021 3:20pm Tests for detecting variants have not yet been approved as a diagnostic either by the FDA or under federal rules governing university labs. (Getty Images)
COVID-19 infections from variant strains are quickly spreading across the U.S., but there’s one big problem: Lab officials say they can’t tell patients or their doctors whether someone has been infected by a variant.
Federal rules around who can be told about the variant cases are so confusing that public health officials may merely know the county where a case has emerged but can’t do the kind of investigation and deliver the notifications needed to slow the spread, according to Janet Hamilton, executive director of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists.
Have a case of a COVID-19 variant? No one is going to tell you
gazettextra.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from gazettextra.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Have a case of Covid variant? No one is going to tell you
msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Have a case of a COVID variant? No one is going to tell you
The problem is that the tests in question for detecting variants have not been approved as a diagnostic tool either by the Food and Drug Administration or under federal rules governing university labs ― meaning that the testing being used right now for genomic sequencing is being done as high-level lab research with no communication back to patients and their doctors.
Written By:
Christina Jewett, JoNel Aleccia and Rachana Pradhan / Kaiser Health News | 10:56 am, Feb. 25, 2021 ×
A child places his testing swab in the vial for pool testing to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the classroom Jan. 28, 2021 at South Boston Catholic Academy in Boston. REUTERS/Allison Dinner