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November 19, 2021
Today, the Minnesota Departments of Administration and Health announced the State of Minnesota has contracted with 11 COVID-19 testing vendors to further expand the testing network of options available to state and local government and public entities including public school districts.
Regular COVID-19 testing can help identify new cases early, which can slow the spread of the virus in the classroom and the community. By slowing the spread of the virus, schools can keep students healthy, safe and learning in person.
The selected vendors can provide schools with a variety of COVID-19 testing services including:
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Creating and operating testing sites in schools, including providing trained staffing for these sites;
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Providing options for bulk ordering COVID-19 tests; and,
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Processing tests in labs and reporting test results.
The testing types available through this contract include rapid antigen testing, nasal PCR testing and saliva PCR testing. View a chart of selected vendors and their offerings on the Minnesota Department of Administration State Procurement website.
Vendors were selected through an open, competitive request for proposal process. This is the standard contracting process the state follows for all relevant contracting needs. Each vendor has entered into a contract agreement with the state, which pre-approves vendors for access by governmental entities in Minnesota and streamlines the process to get testing services for settings like schools. Prior vendor contracts will not be impacted by the new contracts.
School districts or charter schools must be a Cooperative Purchasing Venture (CPV) Member to purchase off the state contract. Schools are encouraged to use funds from the Epidemiology Laboratory Capacity (ELC) Reopening Schools Grant supported through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to contract with vendors.
School leaders, business managers and COVID-19 coordinators can learn more about using the state contracts for testing vendors at a webinar with representatives from the Minnesota Departments of Administration, Education and Health on Wednesday, Nov. 24 at 10:30 a.m.
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