CDC crippled US response to coronavirus by sending hard-hit states like New York and Washington just ONE testing kit and distributing flawed diagnostics in the outbreak's early days, experts say

A series of missteps at the nation's top public health agency caused a critical shortage of tests for coronavirus, hobbling the federal response as the pandemic spread across the country like wildfire, an Associated Press review found.

President Donald Trump assured Americans earlier this month that the test developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is 'perfect' and that 'anyone who wants a test can get a test'.

But more than two months after the first US case of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, was confirmed, many people still cannot get tested.

In February, as the virus began taking root in the US population, CDC data shows government labs processed 352 COVID-19 tests - an average of only a dozen per day.

More