Researchers and paramedics are working day and night to provide effective preventative measures and cure for the virus. Because of their endless efforts, we finally have a new at-home COVID-19 test kit that is authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration. The diagnostic company LabCorp that came up with these tests says that the kits will be distributed among healthcare workers and first responders.

People who want to get tested can swab their nose to collect fluid simply with this test but they have to send it to a lab for testing. The kit removes the necessity of having a clinician to perform the test and reduces the possible exposure to others. It also frees up more personal protective equipment, which is in short supply. The test costs $119.

Source: The Verge

If you want to take the test, you have to swirl a cotton swab just inside the nostril. Medical practitioners usually stick a swab very deep into a patient’s nose for more accurate samples but the analysis done by UnitedHealth Group and Gates Foundation proved that self-administered swabs are just as reliable. Even though doctors were allowed to accept fluids from nostrils by the FDA in March, the task still had to be performed under the supervision of a medical expert.

 
Many biotech startups and labs have put in efforts to design at-home tests since March but the FDA said that any kit that allows self-administered tests need to have additional authorization. LabCorp is the first company to achieve this feat and the tests are already proving to be useful. Just like all the other COVID-19 tests, the FDA used emergency rules to approve the test kit instead of going through the usual procedure.

Right now, the United States is reporting 147,000 cases each day and experts believe that the number could rise if they don’t perform mass tests immediately.