Detroit Sees Progress In Fight Against Coronavirus

DETROIT, MI — After testing residents and staff in each of the city's 26 nursing homes for the coronavirus, the city on Wednesday announced it is doing a second round of testing and is already seeing improvement over prior results.

Dr. Najibah Rehman, the medical director for the Detroit Health Department, said the department is in the midst of retesting residents in 13 of the city's nursing homes. While facilities had between 30 to 50 percent of those tested test positive during the first round of testing, those figures are declining, Rehman said.

The department is seeing between 5 and 10 percent of people test positive now. Rehman credits that improvement on the use and distribution of personal protective equipment.

"I think this is very reassuring that our cohorting and our education and the PPE that the city of Detroit has distributed has been quite effective," Rehman said. "We're hoping that over time these numbers continue to go down and that we can help inform decision making down the road."

Mayor Mike Duggan added that city nursing homes have worked well with the city health department in ensuring the testing is conducted.

"It's tremendously encouraging that as they've gone back to these nursing homes a second time, we've seen that the nursing home leadership has taken the health department's recommendations very seriously," he said. "We're seeing the infection rates drop very steadily at the nursing homes."

Detroit Abbott Test Study

Following national speculation surrounding the accuracy of Abbott rapid testing kits used in Detroit, the city wanted to conduct its own study relating to the test's accuracy, Mayor Mike Duggan said.

Detroit was one of the first cities in the country to use Abbott test kits, Duggan said, using them at first to primarily test first responders.

Rehman said 49 negative samples were submitted to the state to be retested to see if they matched the result reached when the city conducted the test. All but one of the samples did, Rehman said. The one test that was different was inconclusive. They were retested, confirming the city's initial result.

"I feel extremely confident with the Abbott testing modality and I think that we can continue to move forward and feel good about the direction we're going in," Rehman said.