But later, HHS announced that he and the Department of Defense were jointly investing in supplies to increase the capacity of a medical company’s high-volume testing system.
The bottom: More dollars for testing have emerged as a high point in negotiations over the upcoming coronavirus relief package between Republicans and the White House, amid new reports of delays in obtaining coronavirus testing results.
Senate Republicans have reiterated requests for additional money for tests, while the White House had sought last week zero out those dollars. The bill is now expected to include $ 16 billion for testing, although the numbers are still somewhat changing.
What happened: Azar did not comment on why the White House had initially objected to more money for testing, but said previous bills included $ 25 billion for testing, of which $ 11 billion went to the states.
It also squelched concerns that the federal government was sitting on the dollar test, targeting $ 2 billion for the National Institutes of Health to develop cheap and readily available point-of-care diagnostics.
He also said that public health laboratories operate at 58 percent of their capacity, and stated that the federal government meets all needs for supplies and testing. He put the responsibility on states to push the tests, saying “we are certainly talking to the governors and telling them that they have to use this money to get going.”
HHS and the Department of Defense announced on Sunday afternoon a new investment of $ 7.6 million to expand production of supplies that may increase the availability of tests that can be run on high-capacity machines manufactured by the medical technology company Hologic. This will help Hologic increase capacity from 4.8 million tests per month to around 6.8 million in January 2021, according to the HHS statement.
In a tweet, former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb He noted that “Public health labs are in the greedy fight and may be doing even more if they had adequate supplies to run their high-capacity systems.” Those high-capacity systems will be necessary to expand capacity. Demand will increase as schools and businesses try to reopen.
Whats Next: The Trump administration’s test czar, Admiral Brett Giroir, joked an ad later today in a “big investment” that “would improve the supply chain.” And Congress and the White House are negotiating the next aid package, which McConnell said Friday the Senate hopes to send to the House. in two or three weeks – while Democrats say more dollars are needed now.
