On February 12, CDC officials estimated that it would take another week to remanufacture the third component, but six days later, Redfield told Secretary Azar that it might take until mid-March. By February 21, the test was failing in nearly every lab and the CDC admitted that it had no idea when the new test kits might be ready. More than a month had passed since the first known patient arrived in the U.S., and in that time the CDC had conducted fewer than 500 tests. South Korea, which had its first case one day before the U.S., had already tested 65,000 people. China was reportedly testing
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