Giving Compass' Take:

• An article at Philanthropy News Digest reports on a partnership to make rapid COVID-19 testing affordable and accessible to low- and middle-income nations.

• How is rapid COVID-19 testing an essential ingredient in fending off the coronavirus? What are you doing to support sustainable, long-term solutions to provide rapid tests to countries with less access to such resources?

• Learn more about the full implications of rapid COVID-19 testing around the world.

The Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, a global collaboration focused on accelerating the production of and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines, has announced an agreement to make affordable rapid COVID-19 antigen tests available in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

As part of the effort, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has executed separate volume guarantee agreements with rapid diagnostic test producers Abbott and SD Biosensor to make a hundred and twenty million antigen rapid diagnostic tests available over six months to low- and middle-income countries at a maximum price of $5 per test. In addition, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis has announced an initial $50 million contribution from its COVID-19 Response Mechanism to a procurement fund that will enable governments to purchase at least ten million units of the new diagnostic tests at the guaranteed price.

"Ensuring equitable access to rapid diagnostic tests is essential for controlling COVID-19 in all countries and to opening up economies across the world. Ensuring an affordable price is a major step forward," said Carolyn Gomes, an alternate board member of the Global Fund.

Read the full article about rapid COVID-19 testing at Philanthropy News Digest.