Covid-19 Rapid Testing Coming Soon to Canada?

The Food and Drug Administration has approved the fastest Coronavirus test in the United States of America.

The Abbott laboratories produced BinaxNOW Covid-19 Ag card, a 15-minute rapid Coronavirus test. BinaxNOW costs $5 in the United States of America. It is the size of a credit card with a free mobile app for the test results. A good useful tool for students and employees especially with school and businesses reopening.

FDA.gov compared BinaxNOW to a pregnancy test, the similarities of both are the quick and convenient test outcomes. The antigen test is easy but is not as sensitive as the laboratory tests. The test cannot be done at home because it requires a nasal swab by a health worker. It may need to be confirmed with the lab test in cases that the user or the person has Coronavirus symptoms according to the FDA. The shipping began recently in September and Abbott expects to produce 50 million BinaxNOW tests by October. There is still no word from Health Canada about adopting these procedures. 

The importance of adopting a rapid Coronavirus test is paramount considering that there is again a rise in positive cases for Covid-19 particularly for the province of Ontario. There are 149 positive cases identified recently. The first in 9 days to be above the 100-case mark.

Dr. Michael Mina of Harvard University said, “It’s not a rapid test. It’s a laboratory-based test that will still be prone to the same massive delays as any other test.” 

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