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A design flaw and contamination caused the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s initial batch of Covid-19 tests to fail, an investigation by the agency concluded, adding to the understanding of a major misstep in the early U.S. response to the pandemic. In February of 2020, public-health laboratories reported errors with the PCR test that the CDC designed to identify the virus that causes Covid-19. That left the U.S. partly blind to Covid-19’s early spread. (Abbott, 12/15)

Biden administration health officials are privately warning Covid-19 test makers and laboratories that demand for tests could double or even triple over the next two months as cases surge across the country, five people with knowledge of the matter told POLITICO. Internal modeling developed by the Health and Human Services Department’s Testing and Diagnostic Working Group projects that the nation's supply could be stretched by the need to conduct 3 to 5 million tests per day by late January or early February — a sharp increase from current daily levels of more than 1.6 million. (Lim and Cancryn, 12/15)

The Chicago Public Schools will distribute about 150,000 take-home COVID-19 test kits Friday to 309 schools in communities hit hard by the pandemic, the district announced. “In Chicago, we are in a wicked post-Thanksgiving COVID surge — 929 daily cases on average here in the city of Chicago. As the city goes, so goes CPS,” Dr. Kenneth Fox, CPS’ chief health officer, said at Wednesday’s monthly Chicago Board of Education meeting. “When cases surge in the city, so, too, do they surge at CPS.” (12/16)

New COVID-19 restrictions for international travel and other activities are fueling consumer demand for highly accurate polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests with rapid turnaround times. Some clinics can deliver a PCR test result within hours, which these days can be as essential as a plane ticket for air travel. The downside? It will likely cost you hundreds of dollars. (Cerullo, 12/15)