Special Report: How federal snafus slowed testing at a top U.S. hospital

Dr. Amy Mathers stands outside the University of Virginia Medical Center where doctors, lab directors and researchers are working on a test for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S. March 30, 2020. REUTERS/Justin Ide

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia (Reuters) - The lab directors at the University of Virginia Medical Center felt powerless.

In early March, people began arriving with symptoms of COVID-19. One complained of a cough and had just returned from Wuhan, the Chinese city where the outbreak erupted. An elderly patient, already on end-of-life care, had a mysterious respiratory infection. Another, struggling to breathe, had come from a nursing home.