Rapid $5 coronavirus test doesn't need specialty equipment

Food and Drug ministration on Wednesday authorized first rapid coronavirus test that doesn’t need any special computer equipment to get results.

15-minute test from Abbott Laboratories will sell for $5, giving it a competitive edge over similar tests that need to be popped into a small machine. portable test is based on same techlogy used to test for flu, strep throat and or infections.

It's latest cheaper, simpler test to hit U.S. market, providing new options to expand testing as schools and businesses struggle to reopen and flu season approaches. FDA also recently greenlighted a saliva test from Yale University that bypasses some of supplies that have led to testing bottlenecks.

Both tests have limitations and neir can be done at home. Several companies are developing rapid, at-home tests, but ne have yet won approval. Abbott’s new test still requires a nasal swab by a health worker, like most older coronavirus tests. Yale saliva test eliminates need for a swab, but can only be run at high-gre laboratories.

two ditions should help expand number of available tests. U.S. is w testing about 690,000 people per day, down from a peak of 850,000 daily tests late last month. Many public health experts believe country will soon need to test vastly more people to find those who are infected, isolate m and contain virus.

Since start of pandemic, nasal swab tests that are sent to a lab have been standard for COVID-19 screening. While considered highly accurate, tests rely on expensive, specialized machines and chemicals. Shorts of those supplies have led to repeated delays in reporting results, especially during a spike in cases last month.

Government and health experts view rapid tests that can be run outside laboratory system as key to boosting capacity.

“Those screening tests are what we need in schools, workplaces and nursing homes in order to catch asymptomatic spreers,” said Dr. Jonathan Quick of Rockefeller Foundation. nprofit group has called for U.S. to conduct about 4 millions per day by October, mostly rapid, point-of-care tests.

Abbott's BinaxW is fourth rapid test that detects COVID-19 antigens, proteins found on surface of coronavirus, rar than virus itself. It’s considered a faster, though sometimes less precise, screening method. or tests need to be inserted into a small machine.

Inside credit card-size Abbott test is a specially coated strip that interacts with COVID-19 antigens. patient's nasal swab is inserted into card and a few drops of a chemical solution are ded. Markings appear on card to indicate wher sample is positive — much like a pregnancy test.

Two or makers of antigen tests — Quidel and Becton Dickinson have said y haven't been able to meet demand for tests. A third, Lumirx plans to begin shipping its recently approved antigen tests by end of this month. Abbot's Abbott expects to begin shipping tests in September, reaching 50 million tests a month in October.

influx of antigen tests will go a long way toward meeting Trump ministration’s projection that 90 million COVID-19 tests a month will be available by September if needed. But U.S. “testing czar" m. Brett Giroir has stressed that U.S. can contain outbreak with far fewer tests.

“That’s capacity ... we do t need that many tests to safely and sensibly reopen,” Giroir told reporters on a recent call. He pointed to several key indicators that have been falling, including new infections and hospitalizations, even as testing has slowed.

Earlier this month, FDA authorized Yale's saliva-based test, which is expected to cut time and cost compared with similar tests. It’s fifth COVID-19 saliva tests OK'd by regulators. All require lab processing.

Developed by Yale’s School of Public Health, Salivirect can use any sterile container to collect a sample, t special tube needed with earlier tests, and requires less chemicals. Outside experts welcomed new approach but ted its limitations.

"It’s t a rapid test, it’s a laboratory-based test that will still be prone to same massive delays as any or test," said Dr. Michael Mina of Harvard University.

(Im Credit Pixabay)