US Gov't Orders 60,000 COVID-19 Test Kits in First Use of Defense Production Act - Reports

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th March, 2020) The Trump administration is set to use the Defense Production Act (DPA) for the first time on Tuesday to procure 60,000 novel coronavirus test kits to help address a severe shortage to battle the pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported.

President Donald Trump last week issued an executive order invoking the Korean War-era law, but for days resisted calls to use it, saying he is concerned about nationalizing US businesses. Governors have called on Trump to invoke both the production and the distribution elements of the law, saying US states are having to compete against each other for supplies.

The report cited Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Peter Gaynor, who said earlier that the Trump administration had decided to use the Defense Production Act because there are some test kits the authorities need to obtain.

Gaynor also said the US federal government was also inserting "DPA language" into a mass contract for 500 million masks.

The extent of test shortages is difficult to quantify. But anecdotal comments from residents in hard-hit places such as New York City suggest that no one can get tested for the novel coronavirus unless they are extremely sick.

Meanwhile, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a statistical extrapolation of data collected from more than 700 passengers who became infected on the Diamond Princess cruise ship during a quarantine that lasted nearly a month. The data - collected from a sample of more than 3,000 passengers with an average age greater than 65 - indicates that nearly one-in-five infected people never develop any symptoms.

Infected but asymptomatic victims have no way to tell they carry the virus without a test and therefore continue spreading the highly contagious disease to others.