Trump Plans to Distribute 150 Million Rapid COVID-19 Tests

Donald Trump, the United States president, announced on Monday a plan to distribute 150 million rapid tests of the COVID-19. The country registers more than 7 million cases and more than 200,000 deaths from the pandemic.

In a speech at the White House rose garden, Trump promised to distribute the rapid tests in the coming weeks. He stated that 50 million tests would protect the most vulnerable communities with the plan. Including 18 million tests for nursing homes, 15 million for homes for the disabled, 10 million for hospice care, and hospice agencies. About a million for the historically black colleges and universities, which are also the tribal nations’ colleges, he noted.

Furthermore, one hundred million Abbott rapid tests will be delivered to states and territories to support efforts to reopen economies and schools immediately, and as quickly as they can, Trump added.

Thanks to these tests, Trump assured that teachers who need it would be able to receive the COVID-19 test every one or two days.

It takes 15 minutes to get the result of the test

The president stressed that these tests’ results will arise in 15 minutes. And he mentioned that no machine is needed to process them.

Brett Giroir, the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, detailed that the government has awarded Abbott 760 million dollars to deliver 150 million of these rapid tests.

Giroir specified that people could take the sample through swabs. However, it is not a home test, and a trained professional must administer it at the designated points. He also stressed that the authorities would expand the number of places with permission to have care points. Moreover, these include schools, churches, and parking lots.

Brett Giroir stated that they have already sent 65,000 of these (tests) to disaster operations in California, Oregon, Texas and Louisiana. In fact, they have already sent 2.1 million tests to 7,600 nursing homes. About 900,000 tests to homes for the disabled and 300,000 to the community health services. And 339,000 to historically black colleges and universities.

Giroir said they would begin shipping 100 million tests to the governors of the states. Furthermore, the 6.5 million tests will be sent this week.

In August, the government announced that it had purchased 150 million rapid COVID-19 tests from the pharmaceutical company Abbott.