Administration begins distributing 150M rapid tests for COVID-19 virus

The Trump administration yesterday began distributing 150 million rapid point-of-care tests for the COVID-19 virus that it purchased in August, which will go to states and territories (100 million), nursing homes (18 million), assisted living facilities (15 million), home health and hospice care agencies (10 million), historically black colleges and universities, and tribal nation colleges.

Abbott Diagnostics plans to make up to 48 million of the BinaxNOW Ag Card antigen tests available monthly in the U.S. in the coming weeks.

The Food and Drug Administration last month authorized laboratories certified to perform moderate, high or waived complexity tests under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment to use the test to detect SARS-CoV-2 in nasal swabs from individuals whose health care provider suspects they have COVID-19 within seven days of symptom onset.

“Negative antigen tests do not need to be repeated or confirmed with a high-sensitivity molecular test when they are employed for routine screening or surveillance,” said Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Brett Giroir, M.D.