Abbott US announces latest test going into emergency production

[Ellener]

'Abbott has received emergency use authorization (EUA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the fastest available molecular point-of-care test for the detection of novel coronavirus (COVID-19), delivering positive results in as little as five minutes and negative results in 13 minutes.

What makes this test so different is where it can be used: outside the four walls of a traditional hospital such as in the physicians' office or urgent care clinics.

The new Abbott ID NOW COVID-19 test runs on Abbott's ID NOWTM platform—a lightweight box (6.6 pounds and the size of a small toaster) that can sit in a variety of locations.

Because of its small size, it can be used in more non-traditional places where people can have their results in a matter of minutes, bringing an alternate testing technology to combat the novel coronavirus.

We're ramping up production to deliver 50,000 ID NOW COVID-19 tests per day, beginning next week, to the U.S. healthcare system.'

 

[preraph]

Once we can test a lot more people, we'll have a much better idea of what percentage have it and what percentage die from it.  It's a large percentage of those who have it who need hospitalization, that we know, so different from the flu.  Because it's respiratory.  

 

In Dallas, we're the highest in Texas, as was predicted.  All border states will be high for random people coming and going.  Not sure why Dallas particularly.  The first here started in San Antonio.   36 percent of Texans who had to be hospitalized needed to be in ICU (very limited capacity in ICU).  367 cases as of yesterday and 7 deaths.  So not a huge percentage, but they're all old people like me, so very scary for old people.  

 

But if we test say 20,000 people it will be interesting to see how many are positive and of the positive ones, how many deaths, and I would expect that percentage to maybe go down, but what do I know.