Detroit Secures Groundbreaking Rapid-Testing COVID-19 Kits

The city of Detroit is on target to be one of the first in the U.S. to get COVID-19 testing kits that can produce fast results for first responders, health care workers and bus drivers, Mayor Mike Duggan announced on Monday (March 30).

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently gave emergency approval Abbott Laboratories to produce testing kits that can give coronavirus results within about five to 15 minutes.

Duggan announced that he and Abbott Laboratories have reached a deal that will send Detroit five testing machines and 5,000 testing kits next week.

"This is a game-changer for the country," Duggan said during a news conference. "We're going to run 250 tests a day that will get instant results to our first responders and to our bus drivers, so they know."

The Illinois-based company will also send kits to hospitals in southeastern Michigan, Duggan said, that will be used to test health care workers.

Abbott plans to produce 50,000 tests per day starting next week, they said in a statement.

"The COVID-19 pandemic will be fought on multiple fronts, and a portable molecular test that offers results in minutes adds to the broad range of diagnostic solutions needed to combat this virus," Robert B. Ford, president and chief operating officer of Abbott, said.

He added, "With rapid testing on ID NOW, healthcare providers can perform molecular point-of-care testing outside the traditional four walls of a hospital in outbreak hotspots."