US boosts monkeypox testing, 142 cases confirmed

By ZEKE MILLER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration has started shipping testing kits for monkeypox to commercial laboratories, in a bid to speed diagnostic tests for suspected infections for the virus that has already infected at least 142 people in the U.S. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is sending tests to commercial labs, including Aegis Science, Labcorp, Mayo Clinic Laboratories, Quest Diagnostics and Sonic Healthcare, which it said would significant expand the nation’s health system’s capacity to test for monkeypox. Previously, testing had largely been confined to public health labs, which combined have a capacity of about 8,000 tests per week.