With the ongoing global pandemic hitting close to home, American maker of medical devices, Abbott Laboratories, has launched ID NOW COVID-19 Lab-in-a-Box. Based on the company’s ID NOW molecular testing platform, this small toaster size machine is the fastest available molecular point-of-care test that could detect COVID-19 in as little as 5 minutes.
Abbott has obtained an emergency use authorization (EUA) from U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the device to help fight the pandemic. With the authorization and by virtue of the working and size of the device, ID NOW COVID-19 could be deployed at places where it matters – beyond the four walls of hospitals, at physicians’ office or urgent care clinics.
Abbott said it is ramping up the production of the device to deliver 50,000 ID NOW COVID-19 tests per day to U.S. healthcare system starting this week. If you have been following the COVID-19 news, you would have known that some patients who were deemed recovered, were tested positive again.
With the ID NOW COVID-19, it may just eliminate or minimize such occurrence. When the sample is added, a chemical solution is added to it to crack open the virus and revealing its genetic material. Thanks to molecular testing, even a small amount of COVID-19 is found in the sample – which could easily be missed, the machine could kind of amplify that tiny section to make it detectable.
Images: Abbott Laboratories.
Source: Abbott Laboratories via Engadget.
