Duggan backs Abbott Rapid COVID-19 tests after FDA issues alert
DETROIT (FOX 2) - After the Food and Drug Administration issued an alert this week that the Abbott Rapid test could deliver inaccurate results, the City of Detroit is weighing in.
"We track every one of these and the results and we are confident in Abbot because of our own experience," Mayor Mike Duggan said at his press briefing Friday.
The 15-minute test has been used on members of the city's workforce, including first responders and frontline workers.
"Of the 8,000 we have tested on Abbot, more than 4,000 are either police, fire or DDOT," Duggan said.
The rapid test allows those who do test positive to quickly quarantine and not infect an entire workforce.
"If you just look at nothing else but the police department, I think that says it all. We have seen a drastic decline," Detroit police chief James Craig said.
Mayor Duggan's assessment of the test is also personal. It's what he uses to test himself.
For weeks Duggan has been promoting testing from the rapid test to testing at the State Fair Grounds, and now community testing is joining the fight.
"We're averaging about 150 phone calls per day of people interested in getting the testing done," said Rev. Horace Sheffield. His Detroit Association of Black Organizations on Grand River is a community testing site.
He's pushing testing after contracting the virus but found it difficult to get tested because he did not have the key symptoms.
"We are going to beat COVID-19 as a community with leaders like this," Duggan said.
The mayor also announced his former colleague at the Detroit Medical Center Conrad Mallet, who also served as former Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, as the new Deputy Mayor who will lead the city's long-term response to the COVID-19 crisis.