CDC chief: States' coronavirus data "regularly" incomplete or delayed

Essential data to track the spread of the novel coronavirus in the U.S. is regularly delayed and incomplete when sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC Director Robert Redfield told the Financial Times on Wednesday.

The big picture: Most states still aren't doing enough coronavirus testing, especially those that have suffered from larger outbreaks, Axios' Caitlin Owens and Naema Ahmed reported this week.

What he's saying: "We're committed to stay in the containment mode, where we have to get . . . every single case and cluster, a family cluster, workplace cluster, nursing home cluster, and we’ve got to shut them down," Redfield told the FT.

• "Sometimes that data is not collected in electronic form. Then that data needs to be centralized and sent to the states, and once it’s with the states, sent to CDC. The truth is regularly the data is delayed and it’s incomplete."

Of note: Redfield told the FT the outbreak that's brought the "nation to its knees" is "no one particular person’s fault. "This nation has been unprepared for that for decades," he said.

• He attributed the high death toll in the United States to "a lack of funding for public health organisations," including the CDC, and the "high levels of underlying health conditions such as obesity and diabetes," the FT notes.

By the numbers: The U.S. has reported the highest number of COVID-19 deaths and cases in the world. More than 93,400 people have died from the virus and over 1.5 million have tested positive.

Go deeper: Contact tracing is the next big hurdle in the push to re-open cities