Alexander: 130,000 New, Rapid COVID-19 Tests Headed to Tennessee Will Build Confidence About Going Back to School and Work

MARYVILLE, Tenn., September 29, 2020 - United States Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today released the following statement after the Trump Administration announced distribution of the Abbott BinaxNOW rapid COVID-19 tests:

“The Trump Administration announcement that it will send 130,000 new rapid COVID-19 diagnostic tests to Tennessee will build confidence about going back to school, back to work, and out to eat. That number should quickly increase during October and November because the Administration has purchased the entire 150 million initial production of Abbott’s new test that gives more reliable results in 15 minutes.

“Even more tests are on the way. Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health, has said that the new technologies being developed by the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiative, or ‘Shark Tank,’ have the potential to add 60 million tests a month by December to the country’s testing capacity.

“Between now and the time a vaccine is administered and treatments are widely available, the surest path back to school, back to work, and out to eat is an oversupply of diagnostic testing so you can take a test whenever you need one. These millions of new, fast, and reliable tests are a big step towards having more than enough tests to meet our needs.”

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