Fiere Biotech reports that Abbott Laboratories has launched a COVID-19 antibody blood test. “The company plans to distribute 4 million tests in the next two weeks as it ramps up production to 20 million tests per month beginning in June for both the Architect and Alinity systems.” The test will help public health authorities better understand the spread of the disease and help members of the public learn whether they have gained immunity against the disease.

Fierce Pharma offers insights on a presser’s interview with drug manufacturer GSK CEO Emma Walmsley. The article explains that

In all, there are 71 preclinical vaccine programs underway, while six projects have reached phase 1 and one is in phase 2, according to a tracker from the Vaccine Centre at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

China’s CanSino Bio recently moved to phase 2, while Moderna, Inovio and others have started early human testing, according to the tracker. As for Big Pharma, many of the industry’s top companies are involved. Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi, Pfizer and GSK and are among those putting resources into the hunt for a vaccine.

Ms. Walmsley expects that more than one group will succeed in this vitally important development process. “We’re all hoping and we believe the world is going to need more than one vaccine as part of the solution.”

Medium writer Robert Roy Britt discusses the course of the COVID-19 illness. It’s not a 48 hour bug which is important to understand.

Healthcare Dive reports that telehealth network vendor

Teladoc expects volume in the quarter ending March 31 to be above 1.8 million visits, up more than 70% from 1.06 million visits during the same period last year. That’s a significant jump, though analysts said they expected utilization to be even higher. More than 60% of visits are new users looking to check potential COVID-19 symptoms or treat non-respiratory conditions as they shelter in place.

It will be interesting to see if the telehealth trend survives the pandemic. The FEHBlog expects that it will become a routine part of health care.

Govexec.com looks at the Postal Service’s COVID-19 issues and provides and exchange of fairly recent correspondence between a group of U.S. Senators and the Postal Services (last paragraph of the article).