WASHINTON – A new report from the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention found that the total number of cancer screening tests by women plummeted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The health agency says Breast Cancer screenings dropped by 87 percent last year, while cervical cancer screenings declined by 84 percent during April 2020, as compared with the previous 5-year averages for that month.
The CDC says delays in screenings for diseases like cancer may lead to prolonged diagnoses and poor health consequences.
Low-income minority women made up the majority of people who did not receive screenings in that time period.
The agency believes that declines in breast cancer screening varied from 84 percent percent among Hispanic women to 98 percent among American Indian and Alaskan Native women.
Researchers say screening declines coincided with the explosion of COVID-19 cases during the onset of the pandemic in spring 2020.
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