New Hampshire is expected to receive 60,000 rapid COVID-19 tests from the Biden administration in the coming weeks.
As cases of the coronavirus have spiked in the state, access to rapid tests have been limited. The shortage has made it difficult for parents to keep their children in school, as testing is often a requirement to return to school after developing a wide range of symptoms.
Earlier this week Concord School District Superintendent Kathleen Murphy cautioned that rapid antigen testing would be slowing down in city schools as test supplies grow scarce.
“Regretfully, supplies of rapid tests are dwindling in the state, and we will be curtailing our testing program until we can secure test kits,” Murphy wrote. “I would be remiss if I did not express my disappointment that testing supplies are not available to the schools. The District has reached out to anyone who may have access to test kits but have come up short.”
Both Senator Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen sent letters to the Secretary of the U.S Department of Health and Human Services in late October, asking the administration to bolster production of tests to meet the demand.
The administration secured the tens of thousands of tests from Abbott, a medical device company. The tests will come in 10,000 increments over six weeks, said Dawn O’Connell, a U.S Health and Human Services official said. The last shipment will arrive by Christmas, she said.
Results from PCR COVID-19 tests are still provided within a day of getting swabbed, according to the N.H. Department of Health.