US approves new coronavirus antigen test with fast results
US regulators have approved a new type of coronavirus test that administration officials have promoted as a key to opening up the country.
The Food and Drug Administration announced emergency authorization for antigen tests developed by Quidel Corporation of San Diego. The FDA said the test can rapidly detect fragments of virus proteins in samples collected from swabs swiped inside the nasal cavity.
The antigen test is the third type of test to be authorized by the FDA. Currently, the only way to diagnose active COVID-19 is to test a patient’s nasal swab for the genetic material of the virus. It can take hours and require expensive, specialized equipment mainly found at commercial labs, hospitals or universities.
A second type looks in the blood for antibodies, the proteins produced by the body days or weeks after fighting an infection. Such tests are helpful for researchers to understand how far a disease has spread within a community, but they aren’t useful for diagnosing active infections.
