DETROIT – Mayor Mike Duggan is defending Detroit’s use of rapid testing kits now called into question by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The federal agency issued a warning that Abbot Labs’ 15-minute coronavirus (COVID-19) tests may be giving inaccurate results.
Detroit has used them to test first responders. Duggan said they would know if there was a problem with the results.
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There are concerns that the Abbot tests give a negative result when a patient is actually positive. That’s coming from a small study out of New York University.
Duggan said the results in Detroit over the last month of so speak for itself. Duggan said 8,000 Detroit residents, including 4,000 first responders have been tested with Abbot since the pandemic began. A vast majority of seniors at Detroit nursing homes were also tested with Abbot.
The study found that Abbot tests returned false negatives on 48 percent of certain samples. Duggan said the city’s medical director tested samples at a state lab -- looking for false negatives.
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The city also said how Abbott tests are conducted and stored can effect the results.
Duggan said various tests are being used in Detroit and the city continues to check the temperature and symptoms of workers.