Testing for the coronavirus in Michigan, which the state said has ramped up to nearly 2,000 tests a day, may soon slow again because of what the state’s medical chief calls a “dire need” for swabs, reagents and other testing materials.

Based on current testing supplies in Michigan, “we could probably get through another week,” Dr. Joneigh Khaldun told Bridge Magazine.

“It’s an ongoing (concern),” she said of the state’s network of labs testing for COVID-19. “We have gotten requests from other hospital labs that say they are running out of reagents and may need to slow their testing if they don’t get more.”

A lack of supplies is particularly worrisome as Michigan logged its biggest one-day jump in cases on Saturday — 993 newly confirmed cases, bringing the state’s total to 4,650, the nation’s fourth highest. (Michigan now has 111 deaths linked to COVID-19.)

Michigan is well behind many other states in testing, a trend that has made it more difficult to anticipate the continued spread of the virus.

Michigan recorded 12,766 tests results as of Friday, according to the COVID Tracking Project, a health research collaboration. That’s far fewer than other states with a high volume of confirmed cases. It’s also far below other states in the upper Midwest. Ohio, for example, had results for 20,418 tests by Saturday; Illinois had 25,491.

Slowing the spread in Michigan requires being able to better identify the virus’s path through additional testing, Khaldun told Bridge.

“There’s an entire chain — from the swab to the transport media to the reagents in the lab — (that) we need to have to keep up with testing demand,” she said.

“Right now we are in dire need of getting additional reagents into our state so we can actually run the tests,” she said.

Possible help may come from the Trump administration, according to Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan. He said Saturday at a press conference that he had spoken to Vice President Mike Pence, who heads the administration's coronavirus task force, and was given assurances the city would receive help with supplies.

Detroit launched an aggressive testing program Friday on the site of the former state fairgrounds.

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