Washington receives new coronavirus testing devices that yield results in minutes
Washington has received 15 new coronavirus testing devices that provide results in as little as five minutes.
The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Departments received two of the devices on Tuesday.
“It was like Christmas opening the box,” assistant director of communicable diseases, Stephanie Dunkel, told the TPCHD Board of Health during Wednesday’s meeting.
Abbott Laboratories created the portable device — about the size of a toaster — to be used by health care providers as an alternative to sending tests to a lab and sometimes waiting days for results.
The device known as the ID NOW was approved by the Food and Drug Administration March 27. Since then, Abbott Laboratories has been working with the federal government to provide states with the technology, according to a press release from the company.
The devices have been sought by FEMA and states as a quick alternative to sending a test to a lab. President Donald Trump brought an ID NOW machine into the Rose Garden on Monday and called it a “whole new ballgame.”
COVID-19 test swabs are inserted into the device with results coming within five minutes for positive results and 13 minutes for negative results, according to Abbott Laboratories. Production of the portable machines has begun at a rapid pace.
“We’re ramping up production to deliver 50,000 ID NOW COVID-19 tests per day, beginning next week, to the U.S. health care system,” the company said in a press release.
Staff at the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department is training on the machines and deciding which health care facilities should get the devices.
Dunkel said it’s important to keep in mind that wherever the devices go, there has to be sufficient personal protective equipment for staff.
“What we still need to work through is the how and the where in the field,” Dunkel told board members. “But it’s a great resource.”
