ORLANDO, Fla. – The White House is now looking to increase testing nationwide as the Trump administration wants each state to test at least 2% of its population each month.
News 6 looked at Florida testing over a 10-day period from April 18 to April 27.
On average statewide, the total tests were 12,144 per day.
If the state were to do that every day, it would be 364,320 tests per month.
Keep in mind that number is quite inflated because we know potentially thousands of people have been tested multiple times and those retests are included in the total testing number.
There are nearly 22 million people in the state.
To test 2% of the population per month, you would need to hit roughly 440,000 tests per month.
Even the inflated number -- 364,320 -- is much lower than that.
You also have to have labs that can turn the tests around in a timely manner.
In Orange County at least they say right now, it’s not a problem, according to Kent Donahue with the Florida Department of Health.
“Our testing is through Labcorp and they have this great patient portal app and you get your test (results) within 24 hours,” Donahue said.
But how will labs fair when there are even more tests to be processed?
DeSantis said he ordered the state surgeon general to allow licensed pharmacists to order and administer COVID-19 tests.
The state has contracted with two labs to speed up testing to 18,000 tests a day, and will order additional testing machines to increase capacity by 10,000 a day on top of that, according to DeSantis.