White House Announces Millions of COVID Antigen Tests Coming to Arizona

Millions of antigen tests are headed to Arizona to help fight COVID-19.

The White House announced Monday that the U.S. Department of Health Services would be sending 2,190,000 Abbot BinaxNOW COVID-19 point of care antigen tests our way.

The antigen tests are able to diagnose a coronavirus infection in as little as 15 minutes, officials say.


Governor Doug Ducey will reportedly be in charge of distribution and the tests are meant to help support students, teachers, long-term care facilities, first responders, critical infrastructure and more.

So far, more than 600,000 BinazNOW tests have been shipped to Arizona. Many have been deployed to county health departments, state agencies and higher education.

“To facilitate the continued re-opening of Arizona schools, businesses and economy, the Trump Administration has prioritized scaling up the state’s point of care testing capacity by making this $760 million national investment in BinaxNOW tests,” said Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Brett Giroir, MD, said in a press release. “Distributing these rapid tests directly to states is consistent with the Trump Administration’s successful, ongoing approach of testing the right person, with the right test at the right time, is working and the effort will continue until the pandemic is under control.”

These Abbot BinoxNOW tests were originally approved for Emergency Use Authorization in August and initial distribution is underway in all 50 states, White House officials say.

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