(MARYVILLE, TN)  United States Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) announced that the Trump Administration is sending 130,000 new rapid COVID-19 diagnostic tests to Tennessee. 

These will be the Abbott BinaxNOW rapid COVID-19 tests.

The ability to see a drop in positive tests will build confidence in going back to school, back to work, and out to eat.

That number should quickly increase during October and November because the Administration has purchased the entire 150 million initial production of Abbott’s new test that gives more reliable results in 15 minutes.

National Institute of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins said, “Even more tests are on the way. The new technologies being developed by the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiative, or ‘Shark Tank,’ have the potential to add 60 million tests a month by December to the country’s testing capacity."

Dr. Collins noted, “Between now and the time a vaccine is administered and treatments are widely available, the surest path back to school, back to work, and out to eat is an oversupply of diagnostic testing so you can take a test whenever you need one. These millions of new, fast, and reliable tests are a big step towards having more than enough tests to meet our needs.”