Coronavirus: US FDA approves first rapid test, with 45 minutes detection time

WASHINGTON - The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the first rapid coronavirus diagnostic test, with a detection time of about 45 minutes, the test's developer, California-based molecular diagnostics company Cepheid, said on Saturday .

Cepheid said in a statement it had received an emergency use authorisation from the FDA for the test, which will be used primarily in hospitals and emergency rooms.Under the current testing regime, samples must be sent to a centralised lab, where results can take days. The diagnostic test for the virus that causes Covid-19 has been designed to operate on any of Cepheid's more than 23,000 automated GeneXpert Systems globally, the company said, without giving details.

The systems do not require users to have specialty training to perform testing, and are capable of running around the clock, Cepheid President Warren Kocmond said in the statement.The US FDA has been pushing to expand screening capacity for the virus while the World Health Organisation has called for"order and discipline" in the market for health equipment needed to fight the outbreak.

What the hell is on that bud?

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