A medical worker collects a nasal swab sample as a student is tested for the CCA virus (Wuhan pneumonia) at the Brooklyn health Care Coalition’s urgent care Time-limited testing site on Oct. 8, 2020. (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
Andy Slavitt, senior adviser to the U.S. White House Communist Party Virus Response Team, announced Monday (Feb. 1) that the Department of Defense and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are funding a program that plans to deliver by the end of 2021 to millions of households with a CCP virus test kit by the end of 2021.
The Biden administration has provided $231.8 million to Ellume USA LLC, a company previously approved by the Trump administration, to increase production of the virus Home testing kits. At a press conference on Monday, White House senior adviser Slavitt revealed that the over-the-counter, do-it-yourself virus test kit is capable of giving 95% accurate results in 15 minutes.
“Ellume has been scaling up production and will provide 100,000 test kits per month to the United States from February through July,” Slavitt said at a White House press briefing on Monday. “While that’s great, it’s clearly not the scale we need.”
Slawitter said, “So I’m pleased to announce today that the Department of Defense and the Department of Health and Human Services have awarded Ellume $230 million to expand the production base and capacity for this easy-to-use test kit.” He added, “Thanks to this contract, by the end of this year, they will be able to expand production to over 19 million test kits per month, 8.5 billion of which are contracted by the U.S. government.”
The test kits are manufactured by Ellume, a digital diagnostics company based in Australia. Last December, the company received emergency authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to produce the Ellume COVID-19 home test kit for symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals ages two and older, over-the-counter.
He describes the test, “This test is performed with what is called a mid-range nasal swab, which means it is less invasive than the long nasopharyngeal swabs that people see in the news.” You remove the swab, put the sample into the digital analyzer, and the analyzer sends the results to your smartphone within 15 minutes.”
The Trump Administration‘s Operation Warp Speed program granted Ellume a license to produce the home test kit.
In a press statement last December, Ellume announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had given it the green light, and Ellume’s founder and CEO, Dr. Sean Parsons, said, “With the number of COVID-19 cases at an all-time high, the world needs fast, affordable and easy-to-use home testing kits.” “Ellume’s COVID-19 home test kit provides this important first line of defense – it can be used widely without a prescription, enabling the U.S. to respond during the most urgent phase of a pandemic.”
Stephen Hahn, who was FDA Commissioner at the time, had said at a Dec. 15 news conference that today’s authorization was an important milestone for the CCP virus diagnostic test kit. “By authorizing an over-the-counter drug testing tool, the FDA is allowing the sale of this test kit in places like pharmacies where patients can buy it. Simply by wiping their nose and performing the test, they can get results in as little as 20 minutes.”
Recent Comments