Coronavirus: Donald Trump backs Abbott test despite New York University researchers casting doubt on its effectiveness

US President Donald Trump has continued to support a rapid coronavirus test, which is being used in the White House, even though it may return false negatives.

US President Donald Trump is backing a rapid coronavirus test that the White House has been using, despite new data suggesting it may show mostly false negatives.

Mr Trump overnight expressed his confidence in the test from Abbott Laboratories, which takes just 15 minutes to return a result.

But a preliminary study by New York University researchers which found significant problems with it.

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President Donald Trump speaks with reporters on Friday, May 15, even though everyone who attended used the Abbott test, which has since had doubt cast on it. Picture: Alex Brandon/AP

Mr Trump and his deputies have been using the 15-minute test for weeks now, stating it is a “game changer”, to try to keep the White House safe.

The Food and Drug Administration announced late Thursday that the Abbott test can miss a large number of COVID-19 cases, falsely clearing infected patients.

“Abbott is a great test; it’s a very quick test,” Mr Trump said at a Rose Garden event.

“And it can always be very rapidly double checked.”

The rapid swab is used daily at the White House to test Mr Trump, key members of his staff as well as any visitor to the White House complex who comes in proximity to the president or Vice President Mike Pence.

President Donald Trump has continued to back the coronavirus test the White House has been using despite contrary evidence.

The tests were also used to justify most White House staffers’ decisions not to wear masks until they were ordered to do so earlier this week.

“We’ve got to get to the bottom of it, but we still have confidence in the test or we wouldn’t have it on the market," Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told Fox Business Network.

A day after the news came out of the potential false negatives, White House officials continued using the Abbott ID Now test.

Reporters at the White House underwent the test before Trump's Rose Garden event on Friday.

The president noted that administration officials and staff around him, not all of whom were wearing masks, also had undergone testing Friday.