Trump announces 150 million Abbott COVID-19 tests will be deployed across the US
pharmafile | September 29, 2020 | News story | Manufacturing and Production |
President Donald Trump announced on Monday that the government will distribute 150 million coronavirus tests from Abbott Laboratories across the country.
He told reporters: “I’m pleased to report we’re announcing our plan to distribute 150 million Abbott point of care tests in the coming weeks. As we massively increase testing capacity, we will identify more cases in asymptomatic individuals in low-risk populations. This should not cause undue alarm.
“The total number of cases is not the full metric of success. Hospitalisation capacity and mortality rates are far more instructive metrics. As we do more tests, you’re going to have, automatically, more cases.”
Trump’s new direction seems to go against previous advice put out by the US government on testing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in August that some people without symptoms may not need to be tested even if they had been in contact with someone who had tested positive for the virus.
The government said that 100 million tests will go to states and territories to support efforts to reopen their economies and schools as quickly as possible. Fifty million will go to protecting vulnerable communities like nursing homes, hospices, assisted living facilities and black and tribal nation colleges.
Admiral Brett Giroir, the Assistant Secretary for Health at the Department of Health and Human Services, told CNN: “Governors have the flexibility to use these tests as they deem fit, but we strongly encourage governors to utilise them in settings that are uniquely in need of rapid low-tech point of care tests, like opening and keeping open our K-12 schools, supporting critical infrastructure and first responders, responding to outbreaks specifically in certain demographics or locations, and screening or surveillance in congregate settings.”
The FDA gave Abbott’s COVID-19 test Emergency Use Authorization back in August. It sells for $5 at market and provides results within 15 minutes. Abbott also launched a mobile app called NAVICA which will allow people who test negative to display a temporary digital health pass.
Conor Kavanagh
