FL | 1M COVID Tests Expired In Warehouse Get FDA Approval For Use
FL | 1M COVID Tests Expired In Warehouse Get FDA Approval For Use
0
0
Florida officials confirmed last week that between 800,000 and 1 million COVID tests had expired in a warehouse just before the New Year due to “low demand.” On Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration issued an extension for those tests, saying they can still be used.
The Florida Department of Health provided documents from the FDA to WTSP, in which the agency says that the thousands of BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card tests can be used until March.
The tests, according to Florida Department of Health Press Secretary Jeremy Redfern, are pre-packaged kits that have to be administered by “trained individuals,” and are not designed for individual use. Redfern told WTSP that the shelf life of the tests was originally extended in April, and they expired in September 2021.
The state then asked for another extension, Kevin Guthrie, director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, said last week.
Redfern told WTSP that the tests will now go to “county emergency management offices, county health departments, public safety agencies, hospitals and long-term care facilities.”
The stockpile of expired tests was first discovered by Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried in December, when someone whom she described as “pretty high up in the governor’s office” disclosed the information.
She tweeted about the stockpile on December 30, as the COVID-19 Omicron variant was surging through Florida.
It wasn’t until a week later, on January 6, that Florida officials confirmed information about the stockpile in a press conference.
“We had between 800,000 and a million test kits — Abbott test kits — in our warehouse that did expire,” Kevin Guthrie, director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, said at the conference. “We tried to give them out prior to that, but there wasn’t a demand for it.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said at the time that the tests had already received an extended life in September, but that “there wasn’t a lot of demand for them.”
“They’ve been sending them out as requested. There was no withholding anything,” he said. “It’s just the FDA hasn’t gotten back to DEM about whether you can still send.”
Do you want to send us your videos or pictures or even scoops? Contact us via email contact@stessnews.online
About The Author
