Testing being performed on Abbott’s ID NOW platform

A new COVID-19 test is in the works that will deliver positive results in as little as five minutes and negative results in 13 minutes.

Abbott Laboratories, an Illinois-based medical device maker, received an Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday. Beginning next week, Abbott will make its rapid-result COVID-19 tests available to healthcare providers across the country, delivering 50,000 tests per day.

“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 the virus, “ Abbott CEO and president Robert B. Ford said in a press release. 

The test will run on Abbott’s ID NOW platform, which is a lightweight portable device that’s the most widely available molecular point-of-care testing platform in the country, according to the press release. Because of its weight and size, the test can be administered outside of the hospital, as well.

Abbott is expected to produce about 5 million coronavirus tests per month. The laboratory headquarters are in Lake Bluff, about 30 miles north of Chicago.

“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,” Ford said.