The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the United States, which regulates the marketing of drugs, authorized this Tuesday the first homemade test of covid-19 for sale without prescription.
“By authorizing a test for over-the-counter use, the FDA allows it to be sold in places like farms, where a patient can buy it, get a nasal sample, run the test and know the results in just 20 minutes“The chief regulator, Stephen Hahn, said in a statement.
(Read also: US covid-19 vaccination campaign begins)
The test is from Australian pharmaceutical company Ellume and detects protein fragments of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in any individual from the age of two. Users using the Ellume test will need to download a mobile app that will help interpret the results and share them with health authorities.
Ellume expects to produce about three million tests in a year of the coming year. Although being an antigen test a small percentage of the results can be false positive or negative, Hahn stressed that “the fact that it can be used completely at home and that the results are obtained quickly means that its role can be important in the response to the pandemic.” (Also: Bill Gates will predict his coronavirus months)
Getting results quickly means their role can be important in responding to the pandemic
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The approval of the Ellume test comes a month after FDA clearance the also homemade test of Lucira, although of sale with prescription.
The United States is going through the worst moment of the pandemic with more than 200,000 new infections daily and about 3,000 deaths every 24 hours for weeks. The latest data from Johns Hopkins University indicates 303,292 deaths since the pandemic began and 16,681,178 infections, more than in any other country.
Authorities began the vaccination campaign this Monday after the FDA also authorized the injection of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer last Friday.
(Le can interestar: Overflowing with covid-19, the United States is still waiting for the worst)
EFE