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Coping with COVID: Missouri to receive nearly 2 million rapid tests from White House

By Madison Parry

An announcement from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services confirmed that 1 million rapid COVID-19 tests have been shipped to Missouri from the Trump administration. Another 800,000 will arrive later, the tests sent following a spike in cases statewide.

A shipment of over half of 1.8 million rapid COVID-19 tests from the White House is on its way to Missouri, the Trump administration announced Monday.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the rapid tests being sent are able to detect COVID-19 in as little as 15 minutes.

Distribution of the quick-acting tests follows recent reports of a spike in new cases statewide.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson announced his administration plans to use over half – around 60 percent – of the tests at K-12 schools, 30 percent at colleges and universities in the states, and the remaining 10 percent to be reserved for other groups not revealed at this time.

While 1 million is said to have been shipped Monday, the timeline for when the state will receive the remaining 800,000 rapid tests is also unknown at this time.

Data on Missouri’s Show Me Strong Recovery Plan website shows 172,171 COVID-19 cases to date, with 11,768 of those being new cases within the past seven days. Further broken down, data from the state website shows an average of 1681 new cases per day and 192 cases per 100,000 residents.