Q: How many test kits are available in Washington state to test for the coronavirus, and how many people are projected to become infected in the next one to three months?

It’s difficult to determine the precise availability of coronavirus testing in Washington state, but Washington state Department of Health’s Danielle Koenig said the afternoon of Friday, March 6 that the state public health lab has the capacity to perform up to 200 tests a day, and the University of Washington Virology Lab can perform up to 750 a day.

That capacity seems to be expanding quickly. A tweet from UW Virology , which is handling testing for the University of Washington, said the same day that it has the capacity to perform 1,000 tests per day; that it had performed 400 tests to date finding a 5% to 7% infection rate; and that it’s “able to meet all current testing demands.” The next day, March 7, the lab said it performed 400 tests that day.

According to Hilary Karasz with Public Health — Seattle & King County⁠, the majority of swabs for testing are taken in health care providers’ offices and then sent to labs for analysis. “Public Health has been triaging whose tests were conducted based on CDC guidance when there was very limited testing capacity,” Karasz said Friday. “Now that there appears to be increasing numbers of labs being able to test, we will expect providers to conduct the tests and not consult with us.”

While Koenig said “there is no way to know how many people will become infected in the future,” people are making projections.

On March 10, Gov. Jay Inslee said that 64,000 Washingtonians could become infected with COVID-19 by May without containment. The next day, he announced a ban on certain gatherings larger than 250 people through the end of March in three Washington counties.