Coronavirus: ‘Breakthrough’ self swab tests will be available this week

New York: The Donald Trump administrations coronavirus task force co-ordinator Dr. Deborah Birx today announced that a “breakthrough” solution for self swabbing will be available for Americans later this week so that individuals can do their own tests.

Speaking at a White House briefing Monday evening, Birx quoted mortality data from Europe and reassured American parents that no child under the age of 15 had succumbed to the virus there.

“There was the one 14 year old in China. So we still see that there is less severity in children and so that should be reassuring to the moms and dads out there”, she said.

Speaking to Generation Z and to millennials, Birx said that less than one per cent of all the mortality is in the under-50 age group. Millennials are America’s largest demographic cohort.

Birx called these patterns “reassuring” for all Americans.

Birx said the mortality data from Europe shows that 99 per cent of all deaths there, “in general”, are in the over-50 age group and among those with underlying conditions. “The pre existing condition piece still holds in Italy, with the majority of the mortality having three or more pre existing conditions”, Birx said.

Birx cautioned that New York City, Jersey City and parts of Long Island now have an “attack rate” of close to one in 1000 which is five times what other areas are seeing.

“We’re finding that 28 per cent of the submitted specimens are positive from that area where it’s less than 8 per cent in the rest of the country”, Birx said. (IANS)

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