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Asharq Al-Awsat
Asharq Al-Awsat
World
Asharq Al-Awsat

Pandemic Gets Tougher to Track as COVID Testing Plunges

People line up at a makeshift nucleic acid testing site to get tested for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Haidian district of Beijing, China May 9, 2022. (Reuters)

Testing for COVID-19 has plummeted across the globe, making it much tougher for scientists to track the course of the pandemic and spot new, worrisome viral mutants as they emerge and spread.

Experts say testing has dropped by 70 to 90% worldwide from the first to the second quarter of this year - the opposite of what they say should be happening with new omicron variants on the rise in places such as the United States and South Africa.

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