Testing too few people for coronavirus in California at the early stages of its spread was a decision that is still negatively impacting the state’s ability to respond to the covid-19 pandemic, according to the Los Angeles Times:

California found itself unprepared, overwhelmed and constantly lagging, a Los Angeles Times investigation has found. Those early failures left California far behind in the fight against the coronavirus, and it has struggled to keep up — even as cases surge today.

In the beginning, dozens of investigators, called “cluster busters,” worked each case to try to contain the spread of the coronavirus. They aimed at identifying each strand of transmission and snipping it before the virus could take hold as a sturdy web across communities. They functioned as all-inclusive personal assistants: arranging childcare, setting up WiFi, coordinating grocery drop-offs.

But data would later show that, long before the official case count began to climb, the virus was freewheeling. Federal officials grappling with a shortage of test kits issued narrow testing criteria; that meant key local spreaders in the state’s budding outbreak were going unnoticed and untraced.

To read the full story, visit the Los Angeles Times.

Featured image: The city of San Francisco placed warnings signs around the Embarcadero to warn citizens to social distance during the covid-19 pandemic.