Minnesota State Senator Carla Nelson (R-Rochester) today introduced a bill that would accelerate the defeat of COVID-19 by providing $20 million in grants to help experts develop and implement new testing and treatments, including serological and antibody tests.

“The governor himself has acknowledged that widespread testing, especially serological testing, is one of the keys to re-opening the economy and getting us through this pandemic,” said Sen. Nelson. “But those tests don’t just spring up out of nowhere; grants to help experts work on these new testing capabilities will be instrumental. I’ve said it before, but institutions like the Mayo Clinic and University of Minnesota will lead us out of this, and this round of grant funding will give them – and any other medical facility – the resources to get it done faster.” 

The bill allows grant funding to be used to research, develop, and implement SARS-CoV-2 testing, including but not limited to:

• Rapid response testing
• Quantitative droplet digital diagnostic testing
• Serologic and neutralizing antibody testing
• Viral antigen testing with mass spectrometry
• Immune response and stratification testing
• SARS-CoV-2 point-of-care testing
• SARS-CoV-2 tissue testing
• Next-generation sequencing of COVID-19 patients