Biden administration announces $137M deal to boost production of key Covid test component

The contract eventually will allow the production of more than 83 million tests a month, the Pentagon said.

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department has announced a $137 million contract to make more of a key component of rapid Covid tests to boost their production.

The company, Millipore Sigma, plans to build a new facility over a three-year-period to produce nitrocellulose membranes, the paper that shows the results in rapid tests, in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. That will support the production of more than 83 million tests a month, the Pentagon said in a statement Wednesday.

The contract is part of the administration's effort to ramp up production of rapid Covid tests as the U.S. grapples with the highly infectious omicron variant. Antigen tests, which produce results in minutes, can be done at home, while PCR tests are processed in labs and have longer turnaround times. ...