As many Americans struggle to get a hold of a COVID-19 rapid test or secure a testing appointment, the Florida Department of Emergency Management announced that as many as 1 million rapid tests expired while sitting in a warehouse.

During a press conference this week, Kevin Guthrie, director of Florida Department of Emergency Management, confirmed that between 800,000 to 1 million Abbott rapid COVID-19 tests had expired.

As Guthrie, alongside Gov. Ron DeSantis, argued there wasn’t sufficient demand for COVID-19 tests in Florida, a letter written to the state’s surgeon general suggested the opposite.

On Dec. 21, Miami-Dade County’s mayor Daniella Levine Cava wrote a letter to Florida’s Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo that asked for, “all possible tests be directed to Miami-Dade County to meet the growing demand for testing in our community.”

A video posted by Daniel Uhlfelder, a lawyer based in Florida, on Dec. 17 also showed a massive line up of cars of people waiting to get tested at a Miami COVID-19 testing center.

Earlier last week, Nikki Fried, Florida agriculture commissioner, accused DeSantis of stockpiling urgently needed COVID-19 tests and put out a statement asking to quickly release the tests.

“Given the governor’s lack of transparency throughout this pandemic, there’s no known public information about these tests or how soon they expire. With omicron infections exploding throughout Florida, I beg of him to release these tests immediately,” said Fried.

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