LA Launches Coronavirus Testing Program Hoped To Be Game-Changer

LOS ANGELES, CA — Los Angeles city and county officials announced a rapid antigen testing pilot program Tuesday billed as possible game-changer for stopping the spread of the coronavirus in Los Angeles.

The antigen tests provide faster results, and health officials hope it can help infected residents (including asymptomatic people) to quarantine much more quickly, reducing the virus' transmission rate. First, authorities will test the effectiveness of the tests by giving them to local firefighters and compare the results with current testing methods. If they prove effective, city, county and school workers will then take the tests, too. If the tests prove to be effective in that larger second phase, they could be made ready to the public early next year, according to city leaders. In addition to being quicker, the tests are much cheaper, enabling for widespread testing if they prove effective.

"This could be the game-changer we've been waiting for," Mayor Eric Garcetti said, but he also said the pilot program needs to show successful results.

Antigens are toxins within the body, and the tests work by trying to identify someone's health irregularities before they are further along in their symptoms. Patients and health officials can get test results delivered within minutes instead of days or hours, officials said. However, Los Angeles would need many millions of tests to have a chance at getting control of the local outbreak.

Garcetti said the city would need millions of the tests to understand their effectiveness. The state recently announced it would provide millions of the tests throughout California. First, local firefighters will get the test, and that data will be collected and then scanned by artificial intelligence software, with the hopes the spread of the virus could be better tracked, according to Dr. Neeraj Sood, the vice dean of research at USC.

Sood said health officials began giving the antigen tests to firefighters last week.

"We're using two types of tests with the firefighters -- we are using a self-test where the firefighters can ... get results within 15 minutes, and we confirm the results with a (polymerise chain reaction) test," Sood said.

The first phase will be completed in the next two weeks, Sood said.

The second phase will provide antigen tests to the city and county's COVID-19 testing sites and will be distributed to schools once they're allowed to reopen. The second phase will likely last a few months, Sood said.

Garcetti said the antigen testing could be widely available as early as the start of next year.

Antigen tests administered through the pilot program are a nasal swab, but they don't need to be inserted as far up someone's orifices than the earlier COVID-19 tests, making it a more comfortable method, Garcetti said.

The mayor said these tests are also cheaper for the city and county to procure.

Detecting antigens in people who are asymptomatic could also be a significant way to stop the spread of the disease, as people who don't experience symptoms may not know they are contagious.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Service in early October announced a partnership with The Rockefeller Foundation to provide at least 120,000 diagnostic tests to pilot sites, including Los Angeles.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.