Better testing

More rapid COVID testing options keep opening up. This week, Abbott's Ag Card Test received FDA emergency authorisation. Antigen tests like this won't pick up Covid as early in an infection as a PCR test would, but are decent after symptom onset. 

And this can then play a role as part of a testing and management system. 

For example, rather than go in for a PCR test because you've started having symptoms, and wait around for a couple days or more to find out whether you're positive, you could take this kind of test. This test runs $5 USD and gives results in 15 minutes. It would be cheap and easy for everyone just to keep a couple at home, in case needed. 

Community testing when someone feels unwell would shift from being a potentially scary nose-swab, coupled with costly stay-home requirements when waiting on results, to something easier and cheaper than a home pregnancy test. 

Those leaving managed isolation could be given a few of them and asked to test themselves in case of any symptoms, and required to send through a test result a week after leaving isolation - just to be sure there wasn't any late-onset. Note that this test comes with some rather interesting app options:

NAVICA mobile app will help facilitate return to daily activities
Abbott is also offering a mobile app at no charge that will allow people to display their results obtained through a healthcare provider when entering facilities requiring proof of testing. The NAVICA app is optional and an easy-to-use tool that allows people to store, access and display their results with organizations that accept the results so people can move about with greater confidence. The app is supported by Apple and Android digital wallets and will be available from public app stores in the U.S.

"While BinaxNOW is the hardware that makes knowing your COVID-19 status possible, the NAVICA app is the digital network that allows people to share that information with those who need to know," said Ford. "We're taking our know-how from our digitally-connected medical devices and applying it to our diagnostics at a time when people expect their health information to be digital and readily accessible."

If test results are negative, the app will display a digital health pass via a QR code, similar to an airline boarding pass. If test results are positive, people receive a message to quarantine and talk to their doctor. As they're required to do for all COVID-19 tests, healthcare providers in all settings will be required to report positive results to the CDC and other public health authorities, regardless of whether they use the app. The digital health pass is stored in the app temporarily and expires after the time period specified by organizations that accept the app.

The app's user interface is supported by a back-end digital infrastructure that is cloud-based, scalable and secure. It's been designed to support a very large number of users and enable access from anywhere. The app is not for contact tracing and only collects a person's first and last name, email address, phone number, zip code, date of birth and test results.

All kinds of other options start opening up as well. 

Everyone working anywhere near the MIQ system could be tested daily. They could have a set of tests at home so that anyone in their family who gets a cough could self-test immediately. 

Pre-flight testing becomes dead simple. Adding $7.50 NZD to the cost of an airline ticket would get a test for every person boarding. You could use it for every flight during Level 2 or 3, adding only trivial cost, and potentially as a way of getting rid of seating restrictions - consult with your local epidemiologist on whether the risk reduction from testing makes that equivalent. If so, the test requirement could reduce the cost of plane tickets despite the cost of the test, because it would let planes run closer to capacity. 

Workers in sensitive facilities like cold-stores and meat packing plants could be tested daily during any outbreak, rather than facing either shutdowns or restrictions on operation. 

And all of it would mean that contact tracers would have an easier job because infections would be more likely to be caught quickly. 

All of this could make elimination much much cheaper to maintain. 

Update: To be real clear - it isn't available yet. The Emergency Authorisation in the US doesn't even yet allow at-home use. But more of these things keep being developed.