COVID-19 realtime outlook in US blurred

LOS ANGELES－As the BA.5 subvariant becomes dominant among new cases in the United States, reduced testing is blurring the real-time outlook of the COVID-19 pandemic, reported The New York Times on Tuesday.

As public testing sites run by state and local governments have dwindled, more US states have also stopped giving daily updates, creating a foggier look at the state of the virus across the country.

The reduction in public testing means that lab-based PCR testing capacity in July will be only half of what it was in March, said the report, citing a recent estimate by research and consulting firm Health Catalysts.