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1 September

The US Department of Defense (DOD) has awarded a contract to Abbott Rapid DX North America for 150 million Covid-19 tests. Under the $760m initial order, which also covers distribution costs, the company will produce and deliver BinaxNOW rapid point-of-care antigen tests for Covid-19. It is a sole-source acquisition and the FDA has approved an Emergency Use Authorisation for the award. The four-month contract has 31 December 2020 as the ordering period end date. The Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support is the contracting activity and the Department of Health and Human Services is the using customer.

The US Department of Defense (DOD) has supported the delivery of 500 ventilators from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to Indonesia. The ventilators were transported by the Air Mobility Command from Travis Air Force Base to Jakarta. The devices will help the country in its fight against Covid-19 and provide better care to patients. In addition, another 350 ventilators were shipped from the US to Indonesia. Later this month, the last shipment of 150 ventilators will be delivered to the country. This will take the total to 1,000 ventilators. Meanwhile, the Royal Australian Air Force will soon deliver $1.48m worth of PPE to the Indonesian military.

Operation Warp Speed (OWS) programme has said that four of six candidate vaccines for Covid-19 will be in Phase III trials by mid-October. Currently, two are in Phase III and another two will enter by the middle of this month. OWS is already past the halfway point in finding participants for the clinical trials. Production of three of the vaccines is now underway while facilities are being established for manufacturing the other three vaccines. OWS is a partnership between the Defense Department and the Department of Health and Human Services.