ABOVE: ABBOTT
The US Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization of Abbott’s newest coronavirus test, which can read out positive results within 5 minutes and negative results in 13 minutes. The portable ID NOW machine, which will run the SARS-CoV-2 test, can be used in doctor’s offices, expanding the availability of testing beyond hospital and laboratory settings, and the company aims to produce 50,000 tests daily starting next week.
The FDA has given emergency use authorization (EUA) to other point-of-care coronavirus tests, namely, Cepheid’s 45-minute assay and Mesa Biotech’s 30-minute test. As STAT reported, Cepheid’s test would be applied in urgent situations, say, to help with triaging patients, rather than in doctor’s offices. Mesa’s instrument, like Abbott’s, can be used in doctor’s offices, nursing facilities, and elsewhere.
COVID-19 diagnoses have topped 140,000 in the US and deaths have surpassed 2,400, according to the Centers for Disease Control ...
