![]() Public health experts say the need remains far greater, but acknowledged the improvements. Even the much-maligned drive-thru program has now expanded to more than 100 sites in 30 states. National testing numbers have surged from a meager 5,000 tests on the day the team was assembled to more than 300,000 tests conducted last Friday. ![]() That unorthodox team, assembled by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, has achieved real progress: They’ve revamped medical supply chains, solved ventilator shortages and then devised a Covid-19 testing plan that the White House announced last week. The team that assembled the drive-thru initiative in about 96 hours - a coalition of administration technocrats, career civil servants and private-sector volunteers who were rapidly thrown together the day before Trump’s Rose Garden remarks - has become the heart of White House efforts to conquer the all-consuming problem of producing enough tests to safely reopen the economy this month. Yet inside the administration, and among its retail partners, the drive-thru effort has been viewed quite differently: as a successful prototype. The episode has been held up as a prime example of the White House’s unrealistic coronavirus proclamations, like the president’s March 6 pledge that “anybody that wants a test can get a test” - a promise that remains unfulfilled nearly two months later. State officials and public health experts lamented the missed opportunity to test more people and slow the virus’ spread. Please click on the links below to view/download the reports.The Community-Based Testing Site program would end up serving just 116,234 people in its first month, according to an internal tracker obtained by POLITICO.
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