Developing and deploying tests for SARS-CoV-2 is crucial

“WE HAVE AWHOSARSCV2,The EconomistThe Economist Today simple message to all countries.” So said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organisation () at a news conference held in Geneva on March 16th. “Test, test, test. All countries should be able to test all suspected cases, they cannot fight this pandemic blindfolded.” Without adequate testing for -o- the novel coronavirus that is now sweeping rapidly around the world, he said, there can be no isolation of cases and the chain of infection will not be broken. As if to prove the point, a vigorous policy of testing seems to have slowed the virus’s spread in South Korea quite dramatically. And in Vo, a town in Italy, thorough and repeated testing of all 3,300 inhabitants has stopped new infections entirely.