Good news! On Aug. 27, the Trump Administration announced the purchase and production of 150 million rapid COVID-19 tests to be distributed nationwide. These tests, produced by Abbott and called BinaxNOW tests, test for antigens in about 15 minutes, and do not require the use of complex equipment or potentially dangerous chemicals. An Emergency Use Authorization was issued on Aug. 26.
About the size of a credit card (but thicker), they are relatively reliable, with sensitivity (correctly identifying positive cases) 97.1% of the time, and specificity (correctly identifying negative cases) 98.5% of the time.
