How to prevent and combat coronavirus in jails, prisons, and juvenile detention facilitiesCorrections professionals deal with risks and threats daily. Infectious diseases are part of what officers and staff face on their daily walk. They can’t stop taking in detainees just because there’s a pandemic. By Guardian RFID | St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office | Dr. Anne Spaulding.
The Department of Homeland Security is only testing a sample of the detainees it is removing from the United States and using a 15-minute rapid test to determine if they have the coronavirus.
The response by DHS to a Miami Herald inquiry comes as immigration advocates continue to call for an end to deportations amid surging COVID-19 infections in Latin America and the Caribbean and as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns about the accuracy of the test being used, called the Abbott ID NOW.
Earlier this month, the FDA cautioned that early data “suggests potential inaccurate results from using the Abbott ID NOW point-of-care test to diagnose COVID-19. Specifically, the test may return false negative results.”
Made by Abbott Laboratories, the test, promoted by the Trump administration, is said to provide inaccurate results that could have patients falsely believing they are not infected with the coronavirus.
In response to the FDA’s warning, a spokesperson with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said their health officials were “provided the rapid tests through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Continue reading