“A hurricane:” Virus storm sends test-makers into overdrive

By JOHN LEICESTER
Associated Press

GUIPRY, France (AP) — The wildfire spread across Europe of the highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus is driving soaring needs for testing. In France, where new infections are at record levels, production lines are humming, spitting out freshly packaged tests. The CEO of a test-kit manufacturer in western France says surging demand has hit “like a hurricane.” His workforce has already expanded six-fold during the pandemic. He’s hiring more workers to manufacture night and day. Infection-detection is buckling under the strain. Some French laboratories are running short of the reactive agents needed for PCR tests and are having to ration their use. In the past week, France has recorded an average of more than 200,000 new cases per day.