CVS Health is among the firms anticipated to partake in the White House partnership. | Cindy Ord/Getty Images
Several national retailers, including CVS Health, are set to announce a significant expansion of self-swab coronavirus testing efforts at the White House this evening.
The United States has run about 5.5 million coronavirus tests after a slow start caused by the botched rollout of CDC’s diagnostic test. The number of tests analyzed has risen dramatically in recent days: More than 1.5 million samples have been processed in the past week alone, according to The COVID Tracking Project.
CVS expects to have 1,000 testing locations that can conduct 1.5 million tests per month up and running by the end of May, if enough supplies and lab capacity are available. Testing will be scheduled online and occur in parking lots or in drive-thru windows, not in-store.
An HHS spokesperson said the private-public partnership with retail pharmacy chains will expand access to self-administered coronavirus tests.
“These sites will provide Americans with faster, less invasive and more convenient testing, protect healthcare personnel by eliminating direct-contact with symptomatic individuals and expand rapidly to areas that are under-tested and socially vulnerable,” the spokesperson said.
Executives from Walgreens, Walmart, CVS, Thermo Fisher, Rite Aid, U.S. Cotton, Quest Diagnostics, LabCorp and the American Clinical Laboratory Association were scheduled to attend a White House meeting this afternoon to discuss the effort.
White House to announce testing partnership with drugstore chains
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