new covid test
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New Jersey and the rest of the country have seen a spike in the daily number of COVID cases, but during today’s press conference, Governor Phil Murphy had some good news to offer. New Jersey will be one of the first states to receive a brand new rapid molecular COVID test that can produce accurate results in under 20 minutes. It’s a big plus for the Garden State and will surely help to diagnose and control the spread, especially among our state’s most vulnerable citizens.

“Last week we were notified by our federal partners that we will have another means of testing at our disposal,” said Murphy in the press conference. “I am proud that New Jersey is one of the very first states, I believe of five in all, selected by the Federal Department of Health and Human Services to receive a new rapid molecular test developed by Cue Health.”

Murphy went on to say the new Cue tests have proven to be highly accurate. “This test has shown to produce results with 99 percent accuracy in approximately 20 minutes,” he said. “I was on with the CEO yesterday, he said it was 19 minutes when compared with lab-based PCR tests.”

Murphy said that a plan is currently in the works to get the new tests distributed to places that are most at risk.

“Through the Department of Health we are developing a distribution plan that will allow us to deploy this new testing system tour most vulnerable communities, including our long-term care facilities and veteran’s homes as soon as we receive them,” he said.

Additionally, while there was some Twitter speculation about the rise in cases causing some drastic changes, Murphy clarified that NJ is not planning a statewide school closure at the present time. However, new regulations about indoor sports and restaurants went into place today. Restaurants and bars will be required to close by 10 pm to dine-in customers and indoor sports will no longer be able to participate in interstate games. Get more on these new rules here.