In the absence of a federal testing strategy, surging COVID-19 cases, and the looming 2020-21 school year, the governors of Maryland, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia—three Republicans and four Democrats—announced they joined a new interstate compact to receive more than 3 million point-of-care COVID-19 antigen tests.The compact was negotiated via Larry Hogan, governor of Maryland and chair of the National Governors Association, and the Rockefeller Foundation.
According to Hogan's office, as of today the states are in discussions with Becton Dickinson and Quidel, US manufacturers of antigen tests authorized by the Food and Drug Administration, to buy 500,000 tests per state.Rapid antigen tests deliver