BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — A molecular diagnostics company in Silicon Valley, California has received emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for a "rapid molecular diagnostic test... for the virus causing COVID-19."
In a press release on Sunday, the company that developed the newly-authorized coronavirus test said it has "a detection time of approximately 45 minutes."
Company officials said the test targets "multiple regions of the viral genome... to provide rapid detection of current and potential future variants" of novel coronavirus 2019.
"An accurate test delivered close to the patient can be transformative — and help alleviate the pressure that the emergence of the 2019-nCoV outbreak has put on healthcare facilities that need to properly allocate their respiratory isolation resources," said Dr. David Persing, Chief Medical and Technology Officer at Cepheid. "We have developed a test that provides reference lab-quality results in multiple settings where actionable treatment information is needed quickly."
On Sunday, the number of positive coronavirus test results in the U.S. topped 30,000, with more than half of those cases coming from New York state.
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