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Press release
Wednesday March 31, 2021
Participating households will receive free rapid tests to reduce community transmission for one month.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), launched an innovative community health initiative called “Say Yes! COVID Test ”from Pitt County, North Carolina, and soon to Chattanooga / Hamilton County, Tennessee. No less than 160,000 residents of the two communities will have access to rapid and free antigen tests which they can administer themselves and use three times a week for a month. NIH will provide the tests (also known as a home test or home test) and assess the effectiveness of the initiative, which aims to determine whether frequent self-administered COVID-19 tests help residents reduce community transmission of SARS -CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 disease.
“Reliable and widely available testing is an essential part of our efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19. Regular screening with home COVID-19 testing can strengthen our prevention efforts, ”said Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH, director of the CDC. -home tests to reduce viral transmission rates in communities.
The opportunity to participate in the screening program will be offered by the local health services. Participants will be able to order their test kits online for home delivery or pick them up at a local distribution site. A free online tool that is also available as a phone app will be offered to provide test instructions, information to help understand test results, and SMS reminders about the tests. Strong community engagement efforts are underway to ensure that vulnerable and underserved populations are aware and able to take advantage of this opportunity.
“This testing initiative is the first of this scale to attempt to make free, rapid and self-administered tests available throughout the community to determine their effectiveness in our country’s overall response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, MD, Ph.D. “We hope to obtain fundamental data that can guide how communities can use self-administered tests to mitigate viral transmission during this pandemic and into the future.”
Participants in the “Say Yes! The COVID Test initiative “will also have the opportunity to volunteer in an NIH-supported research study that will collect additional data through surveys. The survey questions are designed to determine whether frequent self-administered testing has made a difference in behavior, knowledge about preventing the spread of the virus, and thinking about COVID-19 vaccination.
The selection of the two communities was based on local infection rates, the public availability of accurate COVID-19 monitoring data, existing community relationships through the NIH Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) and the local infrastructure to support the project.
Researchers from the NIH-supported University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Duke University and the Duke Clinical Research Institute, both in Durham, North Carolina, will work with the CDC and NIH to use publicly available COVID-19 case surveillance data on test positivity. COVID-19 related rates, illnesses and hospitalizations and measurements of viral particles in wastewater to assess viral transmission in the community. At the same time, publicly available data will be examined from other communities of similar size that have not received large-scale self-administered tests to assess the impact of frequent self-administered tests.
“If the self-test is shown to effectively reduce viral spread in selected communities, it is hoped that this will lead to wider dissemination and acceptance of frequent home testing across the country, ultimately providing a new, easy and accessible way to stop the spread of disease. virus, ”said Elizabeth A. DiNenno, Ph.D., associate deputy director for surveillance, epidemiology and laboratory sciences at CDC.
As the test is provided by the NIH Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADxSM) is the QuickVue test developed by the San Diego-based diagnostics company Quidel. The test received emergency use authorization for home use with a prescription from the United States Food and Drug Administration on March 1, 2021. The test is performed with a nasal swab and detects the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 viral antigen within 10 minutes. The companion online tool was developed by CareEvolution, LLC, Ann Arbor, Michigan, with financial support from NIH, and is customized for use with the QuickVue test.
In a recent study conducted by the NIH RADx initiative, researchers found that rapid antigenic testing at least three times per week achieves a level of viral detection comparable to that of PCR-based COVID-19 tests processed in a laboratory. However, a self-administered rapid test produces confidential results at home within minutes, while laboratory processing takes longer and increases costs. The hope is that easier access to testing and faster results will make frequent testing more desirable and encourage people to protect themselves and others in the community.
“COVID-19 testing has undergone a transformation over the past year to provide optimal approaches for a variety of circumstances, including home self-testing,” said Bruce J. Tromberg, Ph.D., director of National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), member of NIH, and leader of the RADx Tech program. “These advances allow for more accessible screening and surveillance tests, a powerful approach that complements vaccination and helps prevent infection when the virus mutates.”
“Say Yes! COVID Test” is conducted in conjunction with the CDC, North Carolina and Tennessee state and local public health departments, NIH, research institutes such as Duke University, University of North Carolina, Central University of North Carolina, test maker Quidel, healthcare technology company CareEvolution, RADx-UP’s community engagement partners, and community-campus healthcare partnerships.
About the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): CDC works 24/7 to protect the health, safety and security of the United States. Whether diseases begin at home or abroad, are curable or preventable, chronic or acute, or result from human activity or deliberate attack, the CDC responds to the most pressing health threats in states- United. CDC is headquartered in Atlanta and has experts located in the United States and around the world.
About the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB): NIBIB’s mission is to improve health by leading the development and accelerating the application of biomedical technologies. The Institute is committed to integrating the physical and technical sciences with the life sciences to advance basic research and medical care. NIBIB supports research and development of emerging technologies within its internal laboratories and through grants, collaborations and training. More information is available on the NIBIB website: https://www.nibib.nih.gov.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):NIH, the country’s medical research agency, comprises 27 institutes and centers and is a component of the US Department of Health and Human Services. The NIH is the principal federal agency that conducts and supports basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and studies the causes, treatments, and cures for common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
NIH… Transforming Discovery into Health®
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