million masks to pharmacies ended up not
having them ready. Another 19 million made
it to supermarkets, but the pharmacy shelves
remained bare.
Deputy Health Minister Pierpaolo Sileri
acknowledged the mask distribution plan had
become a “mess” after three-quarters of the 12
million masks hadn’t been certified.
Arcuri also promised that Italy would distribute
antibody tests to labs on May 4 for a pilot
project of 150,000 people. Testing still hasn’t
begun. Further delays are expected as health
authorities contact the 150,000 people
identified as potential subjects, selected for their
demographic and geographic distribution. They
then must agree and schedule the appointment.
Arcuri insisted his team has “done our part” by
selecting the type of test and said delays were due
to review by the government’s privacy guarantor.
He also said another 5 million virus test kits
were being distributed to Italian regional health
authorities to help boost capacity and isolate
new possible clusters.
Italy was stymied during the outbreak by testing
limitations, and ended up only testing those
who went to the hospital or were showing
strong symptoms. It has increased capacity and
now leads Europe in per-capita testing, with
more than 2.5 million tests conducted to date.
But regional officials say they can’t conduct
more tests because they didn’t receive the extra
reagent necessary to process the results.
Arcuri said reagent is running low worldwide,
and he is now asking domestic makers to boost
production “in the coming weeks and months.”