Clinical Enterprise Inc., a Eurofins Scientific company, announced it has been awarded a U.S. Government agreement to expand national COVID-19 testing.
The agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in coordination with the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), will expand testing opportunities in K-8 schools, underserved populations and congregate settings such as homeless shelters. Eurofins has been awarded the agreement to test up to 24.6 million people.
The goals of the government-funded program are to help identify and minimize asymptomatic transmission, curtail broader community transmission, prevent outbreaks in institutional and community settings, and protect vulnerable individuals and populations.
Eurofins U.S. Clinical Diagnostics companies, which operate a network of 20 CLIA-certified labs, have been at the forefront of COVID-19 testing. Eurofins launched its first RT-PCR assay for SARS-CoV-2 in the U.S. on March 13, 2020. The FDA-emergency use authorized assay, developed by Eurofins Viracor, Inc., is ranked one of the most sensitive on the market, according to the FDA's SARS-CoV-2 Reference Panel.
Eurofins' U.S. COVID-19 program is centered on pooled surveillance PCR tests, where any positive pools reflex immediately to individual diagnostic testing. This method helps identify positive individuals in a timely manner without the need to re-test. Eurofins' high ratio pooling (24:1) combines low cost testing with a highly sensitive test, which is ideal for early detection in community and school settings.
Eurofins was one of 187 vendors vying for the national COVID-19 testing agreement, which was awarded on May 25th. Outreach to schools and community-based organizations will begin immediately.
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