Detroit officials express confidence in rapid COVID-19 testing

Detroit — City officials expressed confidence Wednesday in the reliability of rapid testing being used to screen Detroit's elected leaders and nearly all of its police force for COVID-19, based on a newly released analysis.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, joined by officials from the city's health department, said the sample of 50 patients who tested negative for the virus with 15-minute tests from Illinois-based Abbott Laboratories showed the tests were 98% accurate. 

The rapid testing kits and testing machines, some of the first distributed in the nation, are being relied on in Detroit for medical and public safety workers, bus drivers, nursing home staff and residents, and front-facing city employees. 

The health department shared its findings on the effectiveness of the Abbott kits as Detroit deploys more of the tests for the city's elderly residents and looks to get more essential businesses back online. 

"We are bringing city employees back in most part by the 15-minute testing on the Abbott test, and everybody in my office is back on the job as a result of that test," Duggan said. "I have confidence in it. Now ... we've got the science to back it up."

Six weeks ago, Duggan said, the Abbott test wasn't approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Now Detroit, he said, has become a pioneer in putting the tests to work. 

The hard-hit city reported 9,562 confirmed cases of the virus through Wednesday and a death toll of 1,128 in about six weeks. 

The death figures are up by 17 over Tuesday. Duggan said most reflect deaths from "some time ago," but the "data system is just catching up."

Duggan said the weekly rate of deaths has dropped over the past month. There were 208 three weeks ago, 127 deaths the week afterward and 60 in the last seven days. 

"The single biggest report card that we have in the city is the TCF Center," he said. "Those 1,000 beds built across the street, this afternoon, had one patient in them."

But the city, he said, will have to remain conscious for the rest of the year of another spark.

The city recently conducted an aggressive, 10-day testing effort at its nursing homes and is working on a plan to test residents in about 10,000 senior housing units throughout Detroit. 

A regional testing site at the former Michigan State Fairgrounds has run about 25,000 tests as of this week between standard and rapid testing kits.

The mayor said on Thursday, he will discuss six private construction projects going forward in the city and that testing will be extended to those workers as well.

Duggan announced Tuesday the latest effort to safely transport residents and front-line workers to the fairgrounds. 

Honda has loaned the city a fleet of 10 customized minivans, modified to physically separate the driver from passengers to protect against spread of the virus. The adaptions alter the air-handling system so the driver isn't breathing the same air as a potentially infectious passenger. 

The City Council adopted a revised budget Tuesday that will stave off a $194 million deficit projected for the upcoming fiscal year. The city is facing a deficit of about $348 million over the next 16 months due to revenue losses prompted by the outbreak.

It's losing $600,000 a day alone in wagering taxes from the shutdown of casinos. Normal operations aren't expected to resume any time soon, he said.

"We are a long way away, six months, maybe a year away from the casinos operating the way we're used to seeing them operating," he said. 

The mayor also introduced the city's new Department of Transportation director during his Wednesday briefing. Mikel Oglesby of Miami has about three decades of experience in transit. 

Oglesby was selected following a national search for someone to head the city's transportation operations who had experience with light rail, an option that's "within the realm of possibility" in the event of a national infrastructure bill.

cferretti@detroitnews.com

Staff Writer Melissa Nann Burke contributed.