California, Sacramento face coronavirus test shortage. Why the timing couldn’t be worse
“If you can’t test, then how can you do tracing and isolation” of infected people? said Andrew Noymer, a UC Irvine disease prevention professor and epidemiologist. “Testing is the foundation on which the response is built. “When you inform Joe that sniffle he has is COVID-19 and he needs to stay home for two weeks, you prevent him from infecting five other people, and them infecting five others.”
