Could A Saliva Test Modeled After 23 And Me Kits Be The Answer To Nationwide Shortages?

ABC News: Scientist Behind Saliva Test Breakthrough Sees Bridge To Nationwide Coronavirus Screening 
The Rutgers University scientist who oversaw the development of a saliva test to detect coronavirus said he believes this new way to collect patient samples could serve as a bridge to widespread national testing -- modeled off the kits used by familiar commercial genealogical brands like Ancestry.com and 23 and Me. "It opens up a lot of doors," Andrew Brooks, the chief operating officer and director of technology development at the Rutgers lab, told ABC News. (Mosk and Bruggeman, 4/16)

Stat: Scientists Tap CRISPR To Create A Rapid Covid-19 Test
It cuts genomes, edits DNA, and holds the potential to treat a vast range of diseases. Now, CRISPR is being put to a new test as a search-and-detect engine for Covid-19. On Thursday, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, and scientists at Mammoth Biosciences — whose advisory board includes CRISPR pioneer Jennifer Doudna — published research in Nature Biotechnology laying out a method for using CRISPR to quickly spot the coronavirus in samples from nose or throat swabs. (Brodwin, 4/16)

Stat: CT Scans Might Offer A More Accurate Way To Diagnose Covid-19 
To safely relax the chokehold that policies to control Covid-19 have on the economy, most experts agree that the U.S. will need a four-pronged strategy: aggressive diagnostic testing for Covid-19, isolation of known cases, tracing of their contacts, and quarantining of anyone who might have been exposed until they are clearly uninfected. Many public health officials have focused on the challenge of contact tracing, saying it will require “an army” of new workers. (Begley, 4/16)

CIDRAP: Antibody Tests May Hold Clues To COVID-19 Exposure, Immunity—But It's Complicated
As the nation looks for ways to emerge from the shelter-in-place orders instituted across the country, there's growing hope that our blood might hold clues for how we move forward. Late last week, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that it has begun recruiting volunteers for a study to determine how many Americans without a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis have been exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, based on the presence of antibodies in their blood. (Dall, 4/15)

Modern Healthcare: Abbott Launching Another COVID Test
Abbott Laboratories, which has been on the forefront of COVID-19 testing, is launching a blood test that shows whether someone has had the virus. While the North Chicago, Ill., medical-device maker's two molecular tests are used to detect infection in real time, its new antibody test detects previous infections, the company said in a statement today. (Goldberg, 4/15)

Modern Healthcare: Medicare To Double Payments For High-Throughput COVID-19 Tests
Medicare will pay almost twice as much for high-throughput COVID-19 tests compared with conventional testing methods, the CMS said Wednesday. The agency hopes that higher reimbursements for new testing methods will accelerate their adoption. The move will "allow for increased testing capacity, faster results, and more effective means of combating the spread of the virus," CMS said. (Brady, 4/15)

Kaiser Health News: N.Y. Leads The Nation In COVID-19 Tests, But The Effort Still Lags Behind Demand
This jampacked city, with its high-rises, brownstones and cheek-by-jowl single-family homes, is a ripe environment for the novel coronavirus that has killed more than 11,000 residents. That density also complicates a key strategy for alleviating the epidemic: testing. In their initial response to the pandemic, city and state officials called for federal health officials to move more quickly on increasing testing capacity, seeking to identify those who had contracted the virus and isolate them to help stem the outbreak. (Andrews, 4/16)

Meanwhile, experts explore reopening the country through contact tracing —

The New York Times: An Army Of Virus Tracers Takes Shape In Massachusetts
Alexandra Cross, a newly minted state public health worker, dialed a stranger’s telephone number on Monday, her heart racing. It was Ms. Cross’s first day as part of Massachusetts’s fleet of contact tracers, charged with tracking down people who have been exposed to the coronavirus, as soon as possible, and warning them. On her screen was the name of a woman from Lowell. “One person who has recently been diagnosed has been in contact with you,” the script told her to say. “Do you have a few minutes to discuss what that exposure might mean for you?” (Barry, 4/16)

Politico: San Francisco's New Contact Tracing Program Could Help California Emerge From Isolation
San Francisco is enlisting a cadre of outreach workers and a software company to track and trace Bay Area residents who have been exposed to the coronavirus as California enters the next phase of managing the pandemic. The pilot program announced Wednesday could serve as a model for California and possibly the country as state leaders grapple with how to ease the stay-at-home orders that have hamstrung the economy. Gov. Gavin Newsom this week specifically said tracing the spread of Covid-19 will be crucial in allowing people to increase their movements. (Colliver, 4/15)

San Francisco Chronicle: SF To Use Contact Tracing To Alert Bay Area Residents Exposed To The Coronavirus 
San Francisco unveiled a public health outreach plan Wednesday meant to help the city quickly test and identify people newly infected with the coronavirus, and to track down anyone they may have had contact with who could also become ill. The program is meant to augment the city’s contact tracing efforts, which are a long-standing tool of public health to battle infectious disease outbreaks. (Said and Allday, 4/15)