With the United States struggling to meet the recommended quota of coronavirus tests per day, the Food and Drug Administration issued the first emergency use authorization Friday for a COVID-19 antigen test.
The test, produced by San Diego-based manufacturer Quidel, can diagnose COVID-19 by detecting fragments of protein found on or within the virus present in samples collected from the nasal cavity using swabs. The test produces results within minutes — much more quickly than many other tests on the market, which are more complex to conduct and analyze — but the technology is also more liable to result in false negatives, so an additional PCR test may be necessary to confirm.
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