US OKs 1st coronavirus test that allows self-swab at home
WASHINGTON — U.S. health regulators on Tuesday OK’d the first coronavirus test that allows people to collect their own sample at home, a new approach that could help expand testing options in most states.
The test from LabCorp will initially only be available to health care workers and first responders under a doctor’s orders. The sample will still have to be shipped for processing back to LabCorp, which operates diagnostic labs throughout the U.S.
Allowing people to self-swab at home would help reduce infection risks for front-line health care workers and help conserve protective gear.
For the home test, people are initially screened with an online questionnaire. If authorized by a physician, LabCorp will ship a testing kit to their home. The kit includes cotton swabs, a collection tube, an insulated pouch and box to ship the specimen back to LabCorp. To take a sample, a cotton swab is swirled in each nostril. The test results are posted online to a secure company website.
The company said it will make the test available in the coming weeks. Each kit will cost $119.
The warning comes as doctors at a New York hospital published a report that heart rhythm abnormalities developed in most of 84 coronavirus patients treated with hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin, a combo Trump has promoted.
Both drugs are known to sometimes alter the heartbeat in dangerous ways.
There have been discussions within the White House about changing the format of the briefings to curtail President Donald Trump’s role. The briefings often stretch well beyond an hour and feature combative exchanges between the president and reporters. Advisers have been urging Trump to scale back his appearances at the briefings, saying that he should come before the cameras only when there is major news.
Hollywood studios are shuffling more release dates, including a sequel to “Doctor Strange” and the latest entries in both the live-action and animated “SpiderMan” franchises. Late Friday, both Sony Pictures and The Walt Disney Co. announced updated theatrical release schedules that significantly delay some of their marquee superhero films. Marvel’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” the sequel to the 2016 Benedict Cumberbatch film, has been pushed back from November 2021 to March 2022.
Taxpayers will pay restaurants to make meals for millions of California’s seniors during the coronavirus pandemic, an initiative that could pump billions of dollars into a devastated industry while generating sales tax collections for cashstrapped local governments. California has about 5.7 million people 65 and older and it’s not known precisely how many will be eligible.
The national bill for fighting the new coronavirus is soaring and so is the federal budget deficit. Well over
AP fact check
Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie is taking advocacy of an unproven drug for the coronavirus even further than President Donald Trump. He’s claiming without evidence that it has been effective for young and middle-aged veterans in particular.
What you need to know
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death. The vast majority of people recover.
One of the best ways to prevent spread of the virus is washing your hands with soap and water. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends first washing with warm or cold water and then lathering soap for 20 seconds to get it on the backs of hands, between fingers and under fingernails before rinsing off.
You should wash your phone, too.
One number
20 YEARS: That’s how long the World Health Organization warns that the battle against malaria in sub-Saharan Africa, where it already kills hundreds of thousands of people a year, could be set back as countries focus energy and resources on containing the coronavirus.
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