Nonprescription home test on way

FDA approves rapid coronavirus screening kit; price about $30

WASHINGTON — The first home test for COVID-19 that doesn’t require a prescription will soon be on U.S. store shelves.

U.S. regulators on Tuesday authorized the rapid coronavirus test, which can be done entirely at home. The announcement by the Food and Drug Administration represents another important step in efforts to expand testing options.

Regulators granted emergency use for a similar home test last month, but that one needs a doctor’s prescription.

The agency’s action Tuesday allows sales in places like drugstores, “where a patient can buy it, swab their nose, run the test and find out their results in as little as 20 minutes,” FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said in a statement.

Initial supplies of the over-thecounter test will be limited. Australian manufacturer Ellume said it expects to produce 3 million tests next month before ramping up production over the first half of 2021.

A company representative said the test will be priced around $30 and be available at pharmacies and online.

Meanwhile, after a punishing fall that left hospitals struggling, some Midwestern states are seeing a decline in the number of new coronavirus cases. But the signs of improvement are offset by the infection’s accelerating spread on both coasts.

Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Nebraska have seen decreases in the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 over the past couple of weeks. All, however, are still experiencing an alarming number of deaths and hospitalizations.

With winter weather driving people indoors, where the virus spreads more easily, there’s no guarantee the improving dynamic can be maintained, doctors and public health officials say.

“We have a vaccine rolling out, but that doesn’t change the overall picture,” Dr. James Lawler of the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Global Center for Health Security told the Omaha World-herald. “Things could still turn south pretty easily.”

In a call with governors this week, White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Deborah Birx said the progress in Midwestern states is being offset by a “deteriorating situation” on both coasts.

Nationwide, the number of people in the hospital with the virus has hit an all-time high of more than 110,000, according to the COVID Tracking Project.

In other developments:

■ Vice President Mike Pence said he looks forward in the days ahead to receiving a vaccine for COVID-19 and will do so without hesitation. Pence spoke Tuesday at a Catalent Biologics plant in his home state of Indiana.

The plant is producing a vaccine developed by Moderna and the National Institutes of Health.

Florida’s largest hospital system said it was on track to immunize nearly 20,000 health care workers against COVID-19 as Gov. Ron Desantis on Tuesday announced a delay in hundreds of thousands of doses of the Pfizer vaccine. But Desantis said the first batch of the Moderna vaccine, 370,000 doses, could begin heading to his state as soon as this weekend.

■ Louisiana’s education superintendent asked Gov. John Bel Edwards and state health leaders to prioritize childcare workers, schoolteachers, school employees and school bus drivers when divvying up future vaccine shipments.