Trump Unveils New 5-Minute Coronavirus Test

The U.S. just introduced a new coronavirus test that provides results in as few as 5 minutes.

President Trump appeared alongside the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in a Rose Garden press conference yesterday to announce the adoption of the new rapid testing kit. Since the start of the outbreak, the United States has tested over 1 million people for the novel coronavirus and Trump says it’s “a milestone in our war against the coronavirus.”

The new rapid testing kit is made by Abbott Laboratories, a medical device company based in Chicago. FDA officials gave the company emergency clearance to produce the test in order to fast-track its availability. The highly portable device can return positive test results in as little as 5 minutes. Negative tests can take up to 13 minutes.

Abbot’s new testing device is a major upgrade for first responders and front-line healthcare workers. The roughly six-pound device can be deployed in the field so healthcare workers can administer tests and rapidly deliver on-the-spot results.

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Rapid identification will also make it easier to address and contain infected individuals.

Previous tests took at least 24 hours to return results, and some hospitals have had difficulty reaching infected individuals once their tests came back positive.

In one particular case in New Jersey, a woman provided fake contact information to an East Orange hospital for her coronavirus test and then disappeared. Her test came back positive, but it took several days and a state-wide manhunt to locate the woman.

These types of instances are a severe public health risk, but Abbot’s instant test should eliminate some of these problems.

Abbott will immediately ramp up production of the rapid test, officially designated as AbbottID NOW COVID-19. The company says it plans to deliver 50,000 tests per day beginning next week.

Estimates from public and private healthcare labs indicate that the U.S. is currently testing about 80,000 to 90,000 patients per day. However, some health experts say that number needs to increase to 100,000 to 150,000 in order to effectively contain the virus.

The influx of new tests should help the U.S. better address nationwide demand. However, there are shortages of other potentially life-saving supplies that the country still needs to address. Ventilators, in particular, are in dangerously short supply, but the country is taking drastic action to shore up its supply.

During Monday’s press conference, President Trump also revealed that Ford Motors is repurposing one of its factories to manufacture ventilators for COVID-19 patients. It will take time to reoutfit the factory, but Ford says it plans to start production by April 20th. The company is aiming to produce 50,000 ventilators in 100 days once production begins.

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Ford is also partnering with GE Healthcare to double ventilator production at a GE facility in Madison, Wisconsin.

During his address, President Trump called on the American people to continue to practice social distancing. “By very vigorously socially distancing, we can save more than one million American lives,” said Trump, “The sacrifices we make will determine the fate of this virus and the fate of our victory.”

If Americans follow the government’s guidelines, healthcare experts believe that the outbreak could peak this month.

President Trump’s press briefing came just a day after he announced that he was extending the country’s social distancing guidelines until April 30th. Previously, the president had commented that he hoped to have the country up and running by Easter, but that timeline proved to be unrealistic given the current growth rate of newly report cases. “The economy is number two,” the president admitted, “my focus is saving people’s lives.”