This is a term used in the early days of the pandemic by the CDC related to the diagnostic testing process for a disease. A presumptive positive result is when a patient has tested positive by a state or local public health laboratory to infection by a pathogen but has yet to have been confirmed by the CDC. Public health laboratories are a network of specialized governmental health laboratories that operate at the state and local level across the country. Every state and the District of Columbia, has a public health lab and many states have local public labs in metropolitan areas and smaller communities. They are among the keys to public health surveillance and work closely with the CDC and other federal agencies, as well as international health agencies. The CDC has stopped using this phrase as state, local and federal health labs have sped up the process of confirming whether a person has tested positive for SARS-CoV-2.
