WOOD TV NBC 8 Grand Rapids: Peters calls on fed government to speed up virus response

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The response to the coronavirus has government at all levels scrambling to do what they can as soon as they can.

U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., says at the federal level action needs to be even more rapid. He says from utilizing military medical services to reducing barriers for quicker testing — the government must streamline the processes.

Keeping people isolated is a good first step, but he says testing must ramp up.

“Right now, the fact that we are seeing across the country that folks should not congregate. Now the CDC is saying groups of 10 people, keeping your distance six feet away from folks. Obviously, hygiene is critically important. We need to do that right now because we need to buy time and buying that time allows us to speed up the testing process which is absolutely critical to dealing with this,” Peters said.

Peters is also calling on the administration to utilize the Defense Production Act to ramp up production of supplies, including test kits, needed to combat the virus.

In addition, he calls on U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as well as the Food and Drug Administration to work closely with states to give them more resources.

As of Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there were 4,226 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 75 deaths in the United States.