There are no coronavirus testing kits available in Florida

As fears of the coronavirus spread across country, Florida does not have any CDC-issued testing kits available to doctors.

© Provided by WESH Orlando Gov. DeSantis speaks about coronavirus concerns in Florida

If a doctor in Florida suspects that a patient has the coronavirus, they will take a sample from the patient’s nose or lungs. Those samples are then sent to the Centers for Disease Control and results are returned about 48 hours later.

4 people under investigation for coronavirus in Florida

Florida Department of Health officials said three cities are going to have testing kits. Jacksonville, Tampa and Miami actually received kits, but officials said they were defective, and they are now waiting on new ones.

Gov. DeSantis spoke about concerns over testing kits while addressing the media Friday with Vice President Mike Pence.

“I told the vice president, the testing, we’ve been able to manage it. Everything goes to the CDC and back, but to the extent this becomes more of a problem, we want to be able to do local testing, and I know they’re working on that,” DeSantis said.

Dr. Christopher Cooper, an infectious disease doctor, said that while doctors wait on results, if symptoms are severe they’ll check the patient in to the hospital. If symptoms are mild, they will self-quarantine the patient.

When state health officials were asked when testing kits will be available in Florida, a spokesperson said they "hope to have lab testing soon."

"Earlier this week, State Surgeon General Dr. Scott Rivkees updated the Senate Health Policy Committee stating that we hope to have lab testing soon in the state of Florida. CDC issued kits that were received at each of our three main laboratories, Jacksonville, Tampa and Miami, but, due to a problem with one of the reagents, the kits are being remanufactured and will be reissued. He added that we will notify the public and the health care community when we are doing testing in our state," the statement from the Florida Department of Health said.

There have not been any confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Florida.

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