In a statement, Rachel Bloom-Baglin, a spokesperson for MilliporeSigma, a supplier of nitrocellulose to major U.S. "We acted to alleviate" the bottleneck, the official said. Some manufacturers cited difficulties sourcing sufficient nitrocellulose supplies a an obstacle to production earlier this year, a senior administration official told NBC News. Supplies are also an issue: Demand for high-quality nitrocellulose membrane, the off-white fabric that forms the COVID test strip, has soared during the pandemic. “The biggest challenge is actually enough people to do the work."īryant said the company has found it difficult to reach its target of hiring 400 workers for a new production facility and finding enough trucks to make deliveries, NBC News reported. The demand far exceeds what we’re doing,” Quidel CEO Douglas Bryant told NBC News. Unfortunately, 10% of its workforce is currently quarantined. One of those other companies includes San Diego-based Quidel, which currently produces more than 40 million tests a month and plans to increase that to 70 million by February. Still, “like other companies, we’ve experienced our share of supply challenges,” she said. The company has invested $500 million globally to boost instrument and test machine capacity. Meanwhile, Roche spokeswoman Michelle Johnson said the company will start deliveries in January and by March provide “tens of millions” of test kits. It is building up the ability to manufacture an additional 30 million to be added to support government, school and more retail efforts, Modory added. Abbott is currently producing 70 million tests a month.
manufacturing facilities, hired thousands of people for new jobs that pay American wages, and we continue to invest in automation to allow us to scale further,” Kim Modory, Abbott’s senior director of public affairs for diagnostics, told NBC News.
#FREE RAPID COVID TESTING SAN DIEGO FREE#
13, the Department of Defense announced the awarding of contracts to three companies, Abbott, Roche Diagnostics and iHealth labs, for 380 million test kits, in an “effort that supports the president’s plan to deliver 500 million free at-home COVID-19 tests."Ībbott has plans to “build two new U.S. The government's order for the free test kits is in addition to existing supply and doesn't interfere with existing orders, said a senior White House official, who added that four new rapid tests with high-volume production capacity have been authorized since September, NBC News reported. rapid at-home test kit manufacturing is 260 million units per month, which is expected to rise to 355 million by February and 526 million by March. She estimated that the current total monthly capacity of U.S. Thus, even if they have the physical capacity for production, they don’t have the staff," Mara Aspinall, from Arizona State University, and colleagues wrote in a newsletter, NBC News reported. Like many other businesses, test kit manufacturers "have too many of their staff out with COVID. 21, 2022 (HealthDay News) - Shortages of both supplies and workers are wreaking havoc on the efforts of COVID at-home test makers to deliver enough of the tests to Americans, even as the federal government pledges to provide 500 million free, at-home kits. Editors and writers make all efforts to clarify any financial ties behind the studies on which we report.įRIDAY, Jan. All of our articles are chosen independent of any financial interests. HeathDay is committed to maintaining the highest possible levels of impartial editorial standards in the content that we present on our website.
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