April 27, 2020
As reported by the Associated Press, Vice President Mike Pence will be traveling to Minnesota’s Mayo Clinic to hear about a new partnership between Minnesota healthcare delivery systems, the Mayo Clinic, and the University of Minnesota. That partnership has been created to increase testing capacity in the state. The visit follows recognition by Pence of Governor Walz’s efforts of battling the virus in Minnesota.
The Partnership
As explained in a COVID-19 Response Statement by Governor Walz office on April 22, the statewide testing strategy is being launched to “test all symptomatic people, isolate confirmed cases, and expand public health surveillance tools.”
The partnership, which is aimed to assure that every symptomatic person in the state gets tested, was funded partially by $36 million from the COVID-19 Minnesota Fund. It is expected to deliver 20,000 molecular and 16,000 serology tests per day.
“This expanded testing capacity will be transformative to our COVID-19 response, especially for vulnerable populations: individuals living in congregate care settings or experiencing homelessness; communities of color and American Indians; and critical workers,” said Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan. “By testing more people, we will build a better picture of how COVID-19 is impacting our state and how to combat it. I am grateful to the extraordinary health care professionals at the University of Minnesota, Mayo Clinic, and all of our health systems for making this partnership possible.”
The Mayo Clinic’s Previous Testing Efforts
In March, Mayo Clinic announced they would be able to process “significantly more” tests and that it had offered to perform testing for COVID-19 for Minnesota Mayo Clini Laboratories, including eight major health systems.