White House proposes two antibody tests per patient in updated COVID-19 plan

April 28, 2020

""The Trump administration has posted an update to its plan to reopen the U.S. economy, this time with a slightly different twist on testing. This plan not only calls on local governments to administer tests for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but also calls for two antibody tests per person under some circumstances, an approach that should beef up both the positive and negative predictive values compared to a single antibody test.""
""Among the surveillance systems available to state administrators are the Influenza-Like Illness Surveillance Network and the National Syndromic Surveillance Program, both of which are under the administration of the CDC. This effort will require more widespread nucleic acid testing at the point of care (POC) as well as POC antigen testing, although antibody testing will still be crucial in efforts to establish local infection rates, particularly among first responders, health care professionals and “vulnerable populations.”""