Tag: COVID-19 testing

Gov. Walz and Lt. Gov. Flanagan Update: January 29, 2021

Governor Walz Announces Minnesota’s COVID-19 Recovery Budget

COVID-19 recovery budget graphic


On Tuesday,  Governor Walz announced Minnesota’s COVID-19 Recovery Budget – his budget proposal for the next biennium. As Minnesota continues to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Walz’s budget supports working families, ensures students catch up on learning, and helps small businesses stay afloat while driving economic recovery.

Governor Walz Takes Action to Jump-Start Vaccine Rollout

On Monday, Governor Walz accelerated plans to make COVID-19 vaccines more broadly available across Minnesota. The actions included a new 72-hour goal for vaccine providers to administer 90 percent of their vaccine doses within three days of receiving them, and all doses within one week. 

Continue reading “Gov. Walz and Lt. Gov. Flanagan Update: January 29, 2021”

Trump’s failure to grapple with the COVID-19 problem is rooted in the hollow gospel of ‘individualism’

AlterNet logoDuring Donald Trump’s daily press conference (and, wait — wasn’t he going to quit those?) on Wednesday, the president was unable to hide his irritation at coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci, and pooh-poohed the latter’s concerns about re-opening schools and universities.

Fauci had testified in front of the Senate on Tuesday and was asked about the possibility of educational institutions opening in the fall. He did not actually weigh in on this policy issue, but just observed, “Even at the top speed we’re going, we don’t see a vaccine playing in the ability of individuals to get to school this term.” Without rigorous testing, he said, there’s “a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you might not be able to control.”

Trump, who’s always furious at any hint that he actually be working at his job, and is overtly hostile to the concept of expanded testing, became visibly angry about Fauci’s comments. Continue reading.

House HHS Finance Division receives overview of COVID-19 testing breakthrough

House DFL logoSAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Today, the Minnesota House Health and Human Services Finance Division held an informational hearing to discuss Minnesota’s breakthrough strategy to drastically increase COVID-19 testing capacity. The plan allows for up to 20,000 tests daily, and the increased capacity will help health officials control the pandemic and support the safe re-opening of Minnesota’s economy.

“This strategy will help our state address the pandemic and move toward normalcy,” said Rep. Tina Liebling (DFL – Rochester), the division chair. “We need to understand the spread of the virus and how it is progressing so we can effectively isolate those afflicted by COVID-19. This will be possible only by increasing our testing capacity.”

The testing strategy, funded in part by $36 million from the COVID-19 Minnesota Fund provided by the Legislature, is being developed in partnership with Mayo Clinic, the University of Minnesota, and other health care providers in the state. It aims to test all symptomatic people, expand our understanding of how the virus is affecting our population, and effectively fight the disease.

Assistant Commissioner Dan Huff of the Minnesota Department of Health’s Health Protection Bureau presented information about the strategy to the committee. Dr. Bobbi Pritt, co-director of Vector-borne Diseases Laboratory Services at Mayo Clinic, and Dr. Anthony Killeen, Professor and Vice-Chair for Clinical Affairs in the Dept. of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology at the University of Minnesota Medical School, also answered questions for the committee.

Video of the hearing will be available on Minnesota House Public Information Services’ YouTube channel.

Testing debate heats up: What you need to know about the coronavirus fight today

The Hill logoWelcome to The Hill’s daily roundup of coronavirus news.

President Trump‘s support for protests calling for an end to state stay-at-home orders contradicts his administration’s own health experts and Vice President Pence. Trump has used state governors as a new political target, even though public opinion is largely tilted in favor of the stay-at-home orders.

Meanwhile, testing is still an issue. The White House says the country is already producing enough tests to enter “phase one” of the administration’s reopening plan. But governors have been contradicting administration officials who say states have the ability to conduct plenty of diagnostic tests.

Experts say the country needs to be testing people on a much larger scale than is happening now, and that doesn’t even include the antibody tests. Administration officials on Sunday touted 4 million tests that have been performed, but that was the number the administration promised would be conducted by mid-March.  Continue reading.

House HHS Finance Division holds remote hearing to receive update on COVID-19 testing update

House DFL logoSAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – The Minnesota House Health and Human Services Finance Division held a remote hearing today to discuss the current status of COVID-19 testing. Members learned about different types of testing being used to combat the pandemic.

“Our state’s testing capabilities are critical to overcoming the public health emergency. It was extremely valuable for our committee to hear from experts and ask questions,” said Rep. Tina Liebling (DFL – Rochester), the division chair. “We’re grateful to have amazing resources in Minnesota, including our excellent Minnesota Department of Health, Mayo Clinic, the University of Minnesota, Hennepin Healthcare and so many other providers, companies, and individuals who are working so hard to protect the health and safety of Minnesotans and end this crisis.”

Dan Huff, Assistant Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Health’s Health Protection Bureau, gave an overview about the difference between molecular and serologic testing, strategies for COVID-19 testing, and how the use of testing has been prioritized given the limited resources for available. More details about MDH’s efforts are available from their website. Continue reading “House HHS Finance Division holds remote hearing to receive update on COVID-19 testing update”

Testing Falls Woefully Short as Trump Seeks an End to Stay-at-Home Orders

New York Times logoFlawed tests, scarce supplies and limited access to screening have hurt the U.S.’s ability to monitor Covid-19, governors and health officials warn.

As President Trump pushes to reopen the economy, most of the country is not conducting nearly enough testing to track the path and penetration of the coronavirus in a way that would allow Americans to safely return to work, public health officials and political leaders say.

Although capacity has improved in recent weeks, supply shortages remain crippling, and many regions are still restricting tests to people who meet specific criteria. Antibody tests, which reveal whether someone has ever been infected with the coronavirus, are just starting to be rolled out, and most have not been vetted by the Food and Drug Administration.

Concerns intensified on Wednesday as Senate Democrats released a $30 billion plan for building up what they called “fast, free testing in every community,” saying they would push to include it in the next pandemic relief package. Business leaders, who participated in the first conference call of Mr. Trump’s advisory council on restarting the economy, warned that it would not rebound until people felt safe to re-emerge, which would require more screening. Continue reading.

Inside the coronavirus testing failure: Alarm and dismay among the scientists who sought to help

Washington Post logoOn a Jan. 15 conference call, a leading scientist at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention assured local and state public health officials from across the nation that there would soon be a test to detect a mysterious virus spreading from China. Stephen Lindstrom told them the threat was remote and they may not need the test his team was developing “unless the scope gets much larger than we anticipate,” according to an email summarizing the call.

“We’re in good hands,” a public health official who participated in the call wrote in the email to colleagues.

Three weeks later, early on Feb. 8, one of the first CDC test kits arrived in a Federal Express package at a public health laboratory on the east side of Manhattan. By then, the virus had reached the United States, and the kits represented the government’s best hope for containing it while that was still possible. Continue reading.