As part of a community-focused move, particularly among schools, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and The Rockefeller Foundation have agreed to identify and share effective approaches for using rapid point-of-care antigen tests to screen for COVID-19.
The pilot program this agreement creates will be based in specific cities and states within The Rockefeller Foundation’s Testing Solutions Group (TSG), including Louisville, Ky.; Los Angeles, Calif.; New Orleans, La.; and Tulsa, Okla. Rhode Island will also function as a pilot state. For the program, HHS will provide TSG with at least 120,000 Abbott BinaxNOW COVID-19 tests. The federal government intends for these efforts to assist reopening efforts.
“This pilot program will generate real-world evidence, and identify best practices and lessons learned, as well as metrics on how to effectively integrate testing into school opening and reopening for K-12 students and teachers,” HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Adm. Brett Giroir said. “Our collaboration with The Rockefeller Foundation will inform states and territories on how to develop their own roadmaps for safely keeping children in the classroom, which is critical for their physical, emotional, mental, and developmental health.”
The Rockefeller Foundation will help communities identify problems, assess options, set policy goals, and find solutions for a scientific response to the pandemic. Along the way, it will gather data on how testing strategies can be put into practice and provide information on essential information about policies, practices, and behaviors the public sector needs to successfully adopt resilient practices.
The news follows the government’s purchase of 150 million Abbott BinaxNOW diagnostic tests in August, following an Emergency Use Authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to guarantee equitable distribution. It is a rapid test that produces results within 15 minutes. BinaxNOW is also the only antigen rapid POC test authorized by the FDA that does not require a lab-based instrument to test samples.