States form coronavirus testing pact

In the absence of a national testing strategy for the novel coronavirus pandemic, six governors have formed a first-of-its-kind purchasing compact they hope will pressure companies that make rapid-detection tests to quickly ramp up production.

The governors, three Republicans and three Democrats, say other states and cities may join them and that talks have already begun with one of the two companies approved by the FDA to sell point-of-care antigen tests that can detect the virus in less than 30 minutes.

Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan negotiated the deal during the final days of his tenure as chair of the National Governors Association. His office said the Rockefeller Foundation is willing to act as the financing entity if needed.

Each state - Virginia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan and Ohio, in addition to Maryland - would request 500,000 rapid tests, for a total of 3 million that could be deployed to address outbreaks.

Having access to that many rapid tests would reduce the need for states to rely on traditional testing infrastructure, which primarily involves private labs that have been beset by long delays.

"With severe shortages and delays in testing and the federal administration attempting to cut funding for testing, the states are banding together to acquire millions of faster tests to help save lives and slow the spread of COVID-19," Hogan said in a statement. "We will be working to bring additional states, cities, and local governments on board as this initiative moves forward."

Virginia Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, a physician by training, said in a statement that the states involved in the compact are "leading America's national response to COVID-19."

"We are bringing together this bipartisan, multistate coalition to combine our purchasing power and get rapid testing supplies to our communities as quickly as possible," Northam said in a statement. "The people in our six states want to see action, and we're delivering."

President Donald Trump delegated to states the responsibility for building a testing system, which led to a patchwork - more robust in some places than others. As of Tuesday, 57.5 million tests had ben administered nationwide since the start of the pandemic, according to the Covid Tracking Project.

Hogan, a moderate Republican who often has broken with the Trump administration over the pandemic response, criticized the president for leaving states to secure testing on their own.

In April, as testing nationwide was scarce, Hogan bought 500,000 test kits from South Korea to great fanfare. But it took many weeks before all the necessary supplies to use them were in place, and The Washington Post reported that U.S. manufacturers had offered test kits for a lower price. Maryland ultimately exchanged most of the original test kits from South Korea for an upgraded version, which Hogan's spokesman said work faster and "better."

Nationwide, testing expanded dramatically through June, when caseloads began to spike. Backlogs at big national labs companies then led to waits of 10 days or more nationwide, rending the results nearly useless for contact tracers attempting to control the spread of the virus.

The rapid tests being sought by the six states are sold by Becton Dickinson and Quidel Corp., the U.S.-based manufacturers of antigen tests that can be run at a doctor's office.

Earlier this month, the FDA approved Becton Dickinson's handheld device that can detect a coronavirus infection within 15 minutes. Quidel's rapid-screen antigen test, the first of its kind, was approved in May.

Rather than detecting the virus's genetic material, the antigen tests identify a protein on the virus's surface - a process cheaper and faster than the commonplace polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests that are being used across the country right now.

While health experts have heralded the antigen tests as a way to quickly screen large populations, they have yet to be widely available.

Quidel spokeswoman Jeannine Sharp Mason declined to comment on any potential discussions with the states. Becton Dickinson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Hogan, in a statement announcing the compact, said he hoped that the states banding together would demonstrate sufficient demand for the companies to ramp up production. The precise role of the Rockefeller Foundation was not immediately clear, but the Hogan administration said the organization would help facilitate the purchase of tests when they become available.

The compact comes as states across the country are seeing rising coronavirus caseloads, and governors are weighing a variety of measures to curb its spread.

In a letter of intent sent to the Rockefeller Foundation, the governors indicated that the rapid test purchase would be the first of several multistate purchases.

"We plan to leverage all available resources, collective expertise and proven cooperative contracting capabilities to enable a national cooperative agreement for national testing and tracing actions, which all interested states and their political subdivisions may participate in," the letter said. "Our entire nation faces a health crisis the likes of which have not been seen for one hundred years, and we look forward to working with the Foundation and working in concert with other states as we fight together collaboratively against the novel coronavirus."

The greater Washington region on Tuesday reported 1,940 additional coronavirus cases and 34 deaths, with Virginia seeing an upward trend in coronavirus fatalities.

Maryland reported 710 new cases and seven deaths, Virginia added 1,145 cases and 26 deaths, and Washington D.C. reported 85 new cases and one death.

While the average daily caseload across the three jurisdictions has mostly held steady in the past week, the average daily death toll has doubled in recent days, standing at 32.

The seven-day average of daily new deaths in Virginia stands at 21, its highest level in a month. The five fatalities reported in Fairfax County on Tuesday was that jurisdiction’s largest daily total since July 16.