People Are Desperate For Covid Tests — But Florida Throws Away 1M Of Them

Politico: DeSantis Defends Allowing Stockpiled Covid Tests To Expire
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday defended his administration’s decision to allow up to one million Covid-19 rapid test kits to expire, a move that comes as he is facing increasing criticism from Democrats over his handling of the Omicron surge. Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie admitted during a Thursday press conference that the tests expired, and DeSantis on Friday sought to explain why the state didn’t distribute them. DeSantis has argued that the stockpile resulted from a lack of demand in the later part of 2021 and blamed President Joe Biden’s administration for not granting extensions to keep the tests eligible — something it did in September for three months. (Dixon, 1/7)

In testing news from California —

San Francisco Chronicle: California Officials Warn Against Price Gouging Of Home Coronavirus Test Kits
With coronavirus tests nearly impossible to find in the Bay Area — and San Francisco health officials saying they will limit testing early this week because of “challenges beyond our control” — California officials are now warning against price gouging for at-home test kits. California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a consumer alert Saturday about sellers charging exorbitant prices for over-the-counter rapid tests, after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order over the weekend limiting sellers’ markups. Unauthorized test sites also are becoming a concern, San Francisco health officials warned. (Flores, 1/9)

Los Angeles Times: Newsom Proposes $2.7 Billion To Expand COVID Response Efforts
California would spend $2.7 billion on new efforts to respond to the surge in COVID-19 cases, including additional testing capacity and assistance to hospitals, under a budget proposal Gov. Gavin Newsom will send to state lawmakers next week. Newsom will also ask legislators to help craft new COVID sick pay rules for Californians, modeled after the policy that expired last fall, requiring businesses with 26 or more workers to offer up to two weeks of supplemental paid sick leave for employees to care for themselves or a family member. (Myers, 1/8)

In more news about covid tests —

ABC News: The Government Is Sending Free Rapid Tests, But Don’t Expect Them All Before Omicron's Peak
The Biden administration's plan to send 500 million at-home tests to Americans for free is an historic undertaking, but one that will take weeks or months to fully execute, recently released contracts and interviews with seven test manufacturers suggest. Contracts for the first two batches of tests were announced on Friday, one for 13.3 million kits from a health technology company and another for an undisclosed amount from a distribution company in Virginia that had extras on hand -- all to be distributed in an effort to reduce the massive testing shortage in the U.S. (Haslett and Abdelmalek, 1/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Labs Limit Covid-19 Test Access As Demand Soars
Escalating demand for Covid-19 tests is prompting some laboratories to ration access, giving priority to people with symptoms or other health concerns as the Omicron variant quickly spreads. Triaging who is eligible for Covid-19 tests can help ensure that patients who need a test the most get results fast enough to isolate or get treatment, pathologists and public-health experts say. The strategy, however, risks perpetuating the virus’s spread if some people get turned away from testing altogether. (Abbott, 1/9)

The Washington Post: Rapid Tests Are Crucial Despite Reduced Sensitivity To Omicron, Experts Say
At-home rapid coronavirus tests remain the “bedrock of our long-term strategy for managing this virus,” said Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health — even in the face of new research that suggests they may be less effective at identifying illness caused by the omicron variant. The antigen tests, commonly referred to as rapid or at-home tests, “remain a very, very effective tool,” Jha said on ABC’s “This Week.” He noted that “in the first day of symptoms” with omicron, “it does look like the test is a little less sensitive,” but beyond that, “these antigen tests continue to work really effectively.” (Pietsch and Hassan, 1/10)

USA Today: COVID At-Home Tests Are Meant For Nasal Passages, Not Throat: Experts
Early data suggests virus particles from COVID variants – including omicron – may appear in the throat before reaching nasal passages where test swabs are done. And federal regulators warn the rapid tests in general may not be as effective detecting the new variant. To make sure they don't miss an infection, some have opted to add a swab to the back of their throat as well as their nose. But federal agencies and health experts urge that at-home tests be used as directed and to not add a throat swab – for now. Throat swabbing may be called for in the future, experts say, but the tests currently authorized in the U.S. weren’t manufactured to detect virus in a person’s throat and could deliver false results. (Rodriguez, 1/8)

The Wall Street Journal: How Reliable Are Covid-19 Rapid Tests For Detecting Omicron? 
The good news: Rapid antigen tests can definitely detect Omicron. The bad news: Some research indicates that rapid tests may be less sensitive to Omicron than they are to other variants. That means the tests might be yielding more false negatives, especially in the early days of infection. And preliminary data from one small study suggests that people could be contagious before they get a positive result on a rapid test. (Reddy, 1/9)

Axios: Much Of America Isn't Tracking At-Home COVID Test Results
As America's record Omicron surge continues, cities and states across the country have no cohesive strategy to monitor the results of at-home rapid COVID tests. This patchwork system means the official COVID case counts are almost certainly a vast undercount. Many cities don't have an accurate sense of just how prevalent COVID is as they make decisions about mask mandates, school closures and other restrictions. (1/8)