Trump Administration Will Deploy 150 Million Rapid Tests in 2020 | HHS.gov

Trump Administration Will Deploy 150 Million Rapid Tests in 2020 | HHS.gov

Trump Administration Will Deploy 150 Million Rapid Tests in 2020

Major Investment made to scale up rapid point-of-care COVID-19 tests for vulnerable and schools

Thursday, August 27, 2020

Today, as part of an historic initiative led by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of and Defense (DOD), the Administration awarded a contract for $760 million to Abbott for delivery of 150 million rapid, Abbott BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card Point of Care (POC) SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic tests to expand strategic, evidence-based testing in the United States.  Testing will be potentially deployed to schools and to assist with serving other special needs populations.  

“The introduction of Abbott’s antigen test is another incredibly valuable result of President Trump’s all-of-America approach to constructing our world-leading COVID-19 testing capacity,” said HHS Secretary Alex Azar. “By strategically distributing 150 million of these tests to where they’re needed most, we can track the virus like never before and protect millions of Americans at risk in especially vulnerable situations.”