Medical Testing

In California, storms over the winter break destroyed a million coronavirus test kits that were meant to help schools screen returning students. In Seattle schools, children waited for hours for virus testing, some in a driving rain. In Florida this month, an attempt to supply tests to teachers in Broward County turned up expired kits.

And in Chicago, a labor dispute, partly over testing, kept students out of school for a week.

As millions of American students head back to their desks — Los Angeles, the nation’s second-largest school district, started classes on Tuesday — the coronavirus testing that was supposed to help keep classrooms open safely is itself being tested. In much of the country, things are not going well.

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Read more about Why Coronavirus Testing Is Falling Short in Many U.S. Schools -NYT
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New Hampshire infections: Omicron now dominant COVID-19 variant

Wed, 2022-01-12 14:08 — mike kraft

Omicron now dominant COVID-19 variant in New Hampshire

CONCORD, N.H. —

The omicron variant is rapidly spreading in New Hampshire, health officials said Tuesday, noting that more than 90% of COVID-19 specimens tested Monday showed evidence of the new variant.

The omicron variant has quickly spread around the world, but it was slower to show up in New Hampshire than in other parts of the United States. Health officials said that last week, the estimated proportion of specimens identified as omicron increased from 30-40% to 75%, fore rising over 90% Monday.

Health officials said Monday that active cases of COVID-19 rose to 17,208, the highest ever in New Hampshire. Hospitalizations increased slightly to 377, about 100 less than they were a month ago. ...

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Florida: FDA extends shelf life of nearly 1 million expired COVID-19 test kits in the state

Wed, 2022-01-12 13:15 — mike kraft

FDA extends shelf life of nearly 1 million expired COVID-19 test kits in Florida, governor says

COVID-19 testing centers throughout Florida — which have been dealing with crushing demand over the last few weeks — may have just caught a big break.

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday announced that up to 1 million coronavirus rapid test kits which had expired in December can actually be used.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration extended the expiration date for three months on a warehouse full of between 800,000 and 1 million Abbott Laboratories BinaxNOW COVID-19 test kits, pushing their shelf life to March.

The tests, which had expired between Dec. 26 and 30, will now be sent to emergency management offices, county health departments, public safety agencies, hospitals, and long-term care facilities.

DeSantis added the rapid COVID-19 test kits are not at-home tests and cannot be sent to Floridians directly. Only trained medical professionals can administer them at testing sites.

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