New Saliva Testing Initiative

Long term care provider interest survey

The State of Minnesota has entered into a contract with Infinity Biologix/Vault Health to establish a new COVID-19 saliva testing option, and a new in-state laboratory to process up to 30,000 saliva tests per day. This new initiative will dramatically expand Minnesota’s COVID-19 testing capacity, and offers a different option for meeting the testing needs in priority settings and populations such as long-term care.  As a first step in the process of establishing this new testing platform, the State is asking organizations to fill out a short survey to indicate their interest in purchasing some of this new capacity. A link to the survey is here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BDK7XV9.

Filling out the survey does not constitute a commitment or purchase agreement, but it’s an important way for the State to assess the level of interest in these tests, so we can make the right decisions about how to allocate that supply across the highest priority and need areas. Vault Health will be engaging directly with organizations that respond to the survey, to establish contracts and plan for delivery of test kits. There is no deadline for completing the survey, but we encourage you to do so sooner rather than later so that we can appropriately allocate capacity.

On tomorrow’s MDH weekly COVID-19 long-term care call, we will be sharing more information about Vault and the saliva testing process. We have Meredith Vadis, the leader of the State’s testing workgroup, as well as representatives from Vault, to attend so that you have a chance to learn more about this option and to ask questions directly to the real experts. Please attend if you are able; the call is from 3:30 to 4:30 on Wednesday, 9/23. If you do not have it on your calendar already, please subscribe at: https://redcap.health.state.mn.us/redcap/surveys/?s=MW7LK7FY83.