Coronavirus: US Company Develops Portable, Five-Minute COVID-19 Test

New Delhi: In a major development, the US-based Abbott Laboratories has unveiled a test which will tell, in just five minutes, if a person is infected with the novel coronavirus infection, the company said in a statement on Friday. Also Read – Why Social Distancing is So Difficult to Implement in India | Watch

BREAKING: We’re launching a test that can detect COVID-19 in as little as 5 minutes—bringing rapid testing to the frontlines. https://t.co/LqnRpPpqMM pic.twitter.com/W8jyN2az8G Also Read – Coronavirus in India: Number of Positive Cases Crosses 850, Indian Army Launches Operation Namaste

— Abbott (@AbbottNews) March 27, 2020 Also Read – Tom Hanks And Rita Wilson Return to Los Angeles After Recovering From Coronavirus

The US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), the company said, had already given it the emergency approval to make the test available to healthcare workers as early as next week. Starting April 1, the company aims to provide 50,000 tests per day.

The test is of the size of a small toaster and uses molecular technology to detect the presence of the coronavirus genome in an individual. The Chicago, Illinois-headquartered firm further said that a thorough investigation to definitively rule out the coronavirus infection can take up to 13 minutes.

Notably, the small size of the test also makes its portable.

The test is based on the company’s ‘ID Now’ platform, which is the most common point-of-care test currently available across the United States, with more than 18,000 units spread across the country. Most prominently, it is used to detect influenza, strep throat and respiratory syncytial virus, a common bug that causes cold-like symptoms.

The United States, earlier this week, overtook China, where the infection originated, as the country with the most number of confirmed coronavirus cases. There are currently 97,028 positive cases in the country, including 1,475 deaths.