Abbott's COVID-19 Test Is Fast, but Lab Personnel Are Worried About Their Safety
Abbott Labs (NYSE: ABT) introduced its quick five-minute ID NOW COVID-19 test to diagnose COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, after the Food and Drug Administration gave the test an emergency use authorization last month. But a new report from Kaiser Health News suggests that lab personnel have growing concerns about how safe the test is for the workers administering it.
When the Department of Health and Human Services announced earlier this month that it was procuring both the ID NOW COVID-19 tests and the ID NOW devices that run the test for public health labs, Indian Health Services, and the Strategic National Stockpile, the agency noted that the test will save on personal protective equipment because "only gloves and a facemask are necessary to administer this rapid point-of-care test."
But healthcare workers are concerned that gloves and face masks aren't sufficient because the test requires the workers to swab the nasal passage of a potentially infected person. The swab is then put back in the original packaging, creating an additional potentially contaminated item that could spread the virus. And then, before the test is run, the technician has to vigorously mix the swab in an open container of solution, which could cause the virus to become airborne.
Source Fool.com
