As if matters concerning COVID-19 weren’t toxic enough, Los Angeles County health officials said Sunday they will stop providing a commonly used coronavirus test after federal regulators raised questions about its accuracy.
This decision only affects a small number of county-supported mobile testing sites. County health officials had already discontinued the broad use of oral swab tests produced by Silicon Valley start-up Curative over the summer because of concerns about too many false negatives.
As of now, the use of curative oral swab tests at the city of Los Angeles’ drive-through testing sites are unaffected by Sunday’s decision, even with Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office said separately that the Dodger Stadium site would be turned into a vaccine distribution center this week. week, ending testing operations there.
Monday. Mayor Garcetti defended the tests as broadly effective and said that moving away from them could lead to fewer people being diagnosed and a greater spread of the virus.
Word was delivered last week from the Food and Drug Administration, and warned healthcare providers and patients that the test made by Curative carries a “risk of false results, particularly false negative results.”
It is advised that the only way to reduce the risk of false negatives, the Curative test should be used only on “symptomatic individuals within 14 days of COVID-19 symptom onset,” and the swab should be observed and directed by a healthcare worker, the FDA said.
We will keep our eyes and ears on this as more info comes out. There will for sure be an increase in cases with protests and rallies planned around the inauguration of president-elect Joe Biden.
