Patients say more coronavirus testing needed in Central Florida

ORLANDO, Fla. - Brittany O’Neal cleans homes in The Villages and comes in contact with a lot of people. A few days ago, she started feeling sick.
 
“Wednesday night, I started having body pains,” O’Neal said, “I started noticing shortness of breath and having trouble breathing.”
 
She says she also had a low-grade fever. She went to a hospital where she says the doctor recommended she get tested for coronavirus. She says after calling state health officials, the doctor came back with bad news.
 
“Well actually,” she recalled the doctor saying, “you don't meet the criteria to be tested for it because it's only for extreme cases and there's not enough test kits for them to be able to test you.”
 
Doctors say it's a big problem in the U.S., which doesn't have a robust system for widespread medical testing.
 
“It's hard to develop these test kits,” said Dr. J. Matthew Knight, “there's a lot of regulatory burdens, a lot to jump over to get these tests approved.”
 
Dr. Knight said the country's healthcare officials should have been more ready.

“The CDC calling the shots here. Early on they had kits with pieces missing, they couldn't find the components - called reagents - and a really long lag in testing time.”
 
In Orange County, health officials say they're setting up a walk-in clinic for people to check their symptoms.
 
“We are preparing a location in our county that could be ready mid next week if everything goes well, where we'll be conducting testing,” said Dr. Raul Pino, Orange County Health Director.
 
O'Neal said everyone needed to be prepared.

“It's going to affect everybody, way more than they can understand right now.”