Robert F. ServiceScience’s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center and the Heising-Simons Foundation.Ever since the coronavirus pandemic began, battles have raged over testing: Which tests should be given, to whom, and how often?
Now, epidemiologists and public health experts are opening a new debate. They say testing centers should report not just whether a person is positive, but also a number known as the cycle threshold (CT) value, which indicates how much virus an infected person harbors.Advocates point to new research indicating that CT values could help doctors flag patients at high risk for serious disease.