Welcome to Monday, March 9th, city and country folk...

As of this morning, the U.S. has 554 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus and 21 deaths.

On Thursday, Vice President Mike Pence admitted that there were not enough testing kits to meet the growing demand.

"We don't have enough tests today to meet what we anticipate will be the demand going forward."

San Francisco Mayor London Breed said that the shortage of test kits has hampered efforts to survey the U.S. population.

In a March 4 letter to Pence, Breed called the national test kit shortage “a national disgrace.”

And in Oregon, health officials have confirmed that the state lacks the capacity to expand coronavirus testing capacity to the extent envisioned by the federal government.

“We do have concerns about testing capacity, and about the capacity for county health departments to monitor and to follow up with everyone who is being tested with this new guidance," said Lillian Shirley, the public health director for the Oregon Health Authority.

As more Americans (eventually) have access to testing, it's guaranteed that the number of cases will rise.

With the White House and CDC providing conflicting - and, at times, contradicting - information, we at Countable have some questions of our own.

We're looking for medical professionals or researchers who'd be willing to help vet material and offer insights. Please reach out to joshh [at] countable.us. Or comment below and we'll get in touch. Thanks in advance.

Are you concerned about the lack of test kits?