Azar warns holiday travelers negative COVID-19 test no 'golden ticket': 'Please be careful over Thanksgiving'

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Azar: Negative COVID test 'not a golden ticket' to let guard down

HHS secretary reacts to vaccine development news, pre-travel testing spike on 'Bill Hemmer Reports'

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar warned would-be holiday travelers lining up for coronavirus testing across the country Monday that a negative result is not the same thing as immunity from the contagion.

Azar told "Bill Hemmer Reports" that while it is wise for people to get tested if they believe it is necessary, they also should not let their guard down if they test negative.

"We have over 120 million tests in the month of November and 70 million are rapid point-of-care tests ... People have to understand, a negative test is not your golden ticket," he said.

"[A negative result] means at that very moment the test is showing you to be negative. So please, people, you still have to be intensely careful about your behaviors, even with a negative test," Azar implored. "Wash your hands, watch your distance and wear face coverings when you cannot watch your distance."

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Azar also dicussed the federal government's approval of the Regeneron monoclonal antibody therapy for coronavirus patients over the weekend, The therapy "cocktail" that was administered to President Trump after he contracted the virus in October.

The secretary promised that 30,000 doses of the treatment would begin shipping Tuesday before highlighting "promising results" from a trial of AstraZeneca's vaccine candidate. 

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"My plea to your viewers, we are seeing all this great news, please be careful over Thanksgiving," Azar told host Bill Hemmer.

The secretary added that with Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca all showing positive results from their end-stage trials and another vaccine from Johnson & Johnson set to roll out early next year, "we have a realistic shot at getting back to normal life as we get into the spring of next year thanks to the vaccination program."