FDA authorizes rapid COVID-19 test you can complete at home

(Image credit: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images)

published 18 November 2020

The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday gave emergency use authorization for a 30-minute COVID-19 test you can take entirely at home. The test, by Lucira Health, requires a prescription, and children under 14 must be given the test at a clinic or pharmacy. It's the first test approved in the U.S. that can be completed at home.

To use the test, people swab the inside of both nostrils then put the sample in the vial on a battery-powered machine, which lights up with the results within half an hour. Lucira, based in California, says the test should cost $50 or less.

Lucira's home test works in a similar way to the extremely accurate lab ones that rely on a technique called polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Instead of PCR, Lucira uses a method called loop mediated amplification reaction (LAMP), The New York Times reports, which "repeatedly copies genetic material until it reaches detectable levels, making it possible to identify the virus even when it is present at only very low levels in the respiratory tract."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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