Last Updated on March 28, 2020 by The Health Master
US pharma giant Abbott Laboratories has unveiled a Covid testing kit that can detetct the virus in as little as five minutes.
The company said, “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the fastest available molecular point-of-care test for the detection of novel coronavirus (COVID-19), delivering positive results in as little as five minutes and negative results in 13 minutes.”
Due to its portable nature, the testing kit can be deployed anywhere in case of an emergency and not just inside a healthcare facility. “With rapid testing on ID NOW, healthcare providers can perform molecular point-of-care testing outside the traditional four walls of a hospital in outbreak hotspots,” Robert B. Ford, president and chief operating officer, Abbott, said in a statement.
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Testing is key to contain the spread of the Covid-19 infection. Total number of cases in the US has now crossed the one lakh mark. The administration has come under criticism for not testing as aggressively as some of the East Asian countries like South Korea.
The company said that it is working with the administration to deploy tests to those areas where they can have the highest impact.
