ABBOTT LAUNCHES FIVE-MINUTE ‘RAPID’ TEST FOR COVID-19

A US-based lab has unveiled a portable test that can tell if someone has Covid-19 in as little as five minutes. Abbott Laboratories said the US Food and Drug Administration had given it authorisation to make the test available for emergency use as early as next week. However, it has not been approved by FDA. .

WASHINGTON: A US-based lab has unveiled a portable test that can tell if someone has Covid-19 in as little as five minutes, it said in a statement.

Abbot Laboratories said the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had given it emergency authoriSation to begin making the test available to healthcare providers as early as next week.

The test, which is the size of a small toaster and uses molecular technology, also shows negative results within 13 minutes, the company said.

“The Covid-19 pandemic will be fought on multiple fronts, and a portable molecular test that offers results in minutes adds to the broad range of diagnostic solutions needed to combat this virus,” said Abbot president Robert Ford. The test’s small size means it can be deployed outside the “traditional four walls of a hospital in outbreak hotspots,”

Ford said, and Abbott is working with the FDA to send it to virus epicenters.

The test has not been cleared or approved by the FDA, and has only been authorised for emergency use by approved labs and healthcare providers, the company said even as doctors and nurses on the front lines pleaded on Friday for more protective gear and equipment to treat waves of patients expected to overwhelm hospitals.

Physicians have called particular attention to a desperate need for additional ventilators. Hospitals in New York City, New Orleans, Detroit and other virus hot spots have also sounded the alarm about scarcities of drugs, medical supplies and trained staff.

“We are scared,” said Dr. Arabia Mollette of Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center in Brooklyn. “We’re trying to fight for everyone else’s life, but we also fight for our lives as well, because we’re also at the highest risk of exposure.”