The Two Coronavirus Tests The World Needs Immediately

As coronavirus sweeps the world, there are two important diagnostic tests. Both are critical for tracking the spread of the disease.
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There has been a wide range of responses to the novel coronavirus as it spread around the globe. When the outbreak began, the World Health Organization called on countries to act quickly emphasizing the importance of testing.

As countries continue to race to identify as many cases of COVID-19 as possible to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, there are two important tests in play. One confirms whether you are currently infected (a doctor will give you a RT-PCR test or a Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction), and the other can tell if you are immune.

And both are important for our collective recovery.

We sat down with Dr. Otto Yang, Associate Chief, Infectious Disease at UCLA, to take a closer look at this particular coronavirus and find out more about the varying responses, the importance of testing, and the basics of PCR tests. Find out more in this Focal Point.

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