Somewhere between 30% and 60% of people infected with Sars-CoV-2 show no symptoms, yet are still infectious. This means mass testing is essential. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00822-x

In Vò Italy, and entire village was cured in 2 weeks by testing every single person twice, and quarantining those who tested positive (70% of which had mild or no symptoms). https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/20/eradicated-coronavirus-mass-testing-covid-19-italy-vo

South Korea has gotten the outbreak under control through rapid response and doing 15,000 tests a day and without instituting a severe lockdown. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/coronavirus-cases-have-dropped-sharply-south-korea-whats-secret-its-success

That countries like Canada and the US are having to severely ration tests is a massive failure of public health. https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/covid-testing-shortages-1.5503926

The virus-specific probes are easy to manufacture in bulk, and everything else needed (qPCR machines, swabs, reagents) could have been stockpiled after SARS, MERS. http://microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-591