Abbott's new testing kits can detect coronavirus in five minutes

• Abbott’s molecular point-of-care test for the detection of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) can deliver a positive result in as little as five minutes and negative results in 13 minutes.
• Currently, the ID NOW COVID-19 test is available only in the US.

The American medical devices and health care company Abbott Laboratories has developed a molecular point-of-care test to detect novel coronavirus, which the company claims can detect the virus in five minutes.

As per the company, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for Abbott’s molecular point-of-care test for the detection of novel coronavirus (COVID-19), which can deliver a positive result in as little as five minutes and negative results in 13 minutes.

The test will run on the company's ID NOW platform is a small, lightweight about 6.6 pounds and portable about the size of a small toaster and works on molecular technology, and is designed to providing rapid results in a wide range of healthcare settings such as physicians' offices, urgent care clinics, and hospital emergency departments.

"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 Robert B. Ford, president, and chief operating officer, Abbott. "With rapid testing on ID NOW, healthcare providers can perform molecular point-of-care testing outside the traditional four walls of a hospital in outbreak hotspots."

Abbott will be making ID NOW COVID-19 tests available next week to healthcare providers in urgent care settings in the US, where the majority of ID NOW instruments are in use today.

The company informed they will be able to produce about 50,000 ID NOW tests per day. “With the combination of our ID NOW and m2000 COVID-19 testing capabilities, we will supply about 5 million tests per month.”

Currently, the ID NOW COVID-19 test is available only in the US as this is where most of our ID NOW instruments are in use today. “We’re also working on additional testing that we can get to more places around the world including our m2000 test that was approved last week,” the company added.