Abbot Nutrition says baby formula production has resumed at the Michigan plant whose February shutdown over contamination contributed to a national shortage.

A powerful storm that slammed Michigan and other states earlier this week forced parts of a key baby formula manufacturing plant in Michigan to halt production, the plant’s owner said Wednesday.

The nationwide shortage of baby formula is quickly becoming the GOP's latest election-year attack on President Joe Biden.

The U.S. baby formula shortage has sparked a surge of interest among moms who want to donate breast milk to help bridge the supply gap as well as those seeking to keep their babies fed.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Monday that Abbott Laboratories recalled some Similac PM 60/40 cans and cases produced at a Michigan facility, after an infant who was exposed to the powdered baby formula died.

U.S. health officials have authorized two more over-the-counter COVID-19 tests that can be used at home to get quick results.

After a year of struggling to boost testing, communities across the country are seeing plummeting demand, shuttering testing sites or even trying to return supplies. “We just don’t have enough people who are immune to rule out another surge.”U.S. testing hit a peak on Jan. 15, when the country was averaging more than 2 million tests per day. “People just aren’t going to go out to testing sites.”AdBut testing remains important for tracking and containing the outbreak. That’s more than 25 times the country’s current rate of about 40 million tests reported per month. From a public health viewpoint, testing is effective if it helps to quickly find the infected, trace their contacts and isolate them to stop the spread.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s White House doctor said the president has tested negative for COVID-19 “on consecutive days” using a newer rapid test from Abbott Laboratories. Conley said in a fresh update released Monday that Trump tested negative for COVID-19 on consecutive days using a newer 15-minute test. Trump announced Oct. 2 that he had tested positive for the coronavirus. His Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, also announced Monday that he had tested negative for the coronavirus. It’s the latest in a series of negative tests for Biden since he was on stage Sept. 29 for a debate against Trump, who later tested positive for the virus.

It delivers results in about 15 minutes and is priced at $5, significantly lower than similar older tests. Assisted living facilities don't provide skilled nursing care and are outside of Medicare's purview. Assisted living providers have not received federal support during this pandemic, and this is a positive step in the right direction, said a statement from the industry group American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living. The Defense Department will be in charge of getting the tests to more than 20,000 assisted living facilities. Giroir said roughly 800,000-900,000 people are in assisted living facilities, while another 1 million seniors are served by adult day care centers.

This image provided by Abbott Laboratories in August 2020 shows the company's BinaxNOW rapid COVID-19 nasal swab test. The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2020, authorized BinaxNOW, the first rapid coronavirus test that doesnt need any special computer equipment to get results. (Abbott Laboratories via AP)WASHINGTON – The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday authorized the first rapid coronavirus test that doesn’t need any special computer equipment to get results. Abbott's BinaxNOW is the fourth rapid test that detects COVID-19 antigens, proteins found on the surface of the coronavirus, rather than the virus itself. "It’s not a rapid test, it’s a laboratory-based test that will still be prone to the same massive delays as any other test," said Dr. Michael Mina of Harvard University.