Over-the-counter home coronavirus test approved; relief talks escalate in Congress
The first home test for COVID-19 that doesn’t require a prescription will soon be on U.S. store shelves.
U.S. regulators Tuesday authorized the rapid coronavirus test, which can be done entirely at home. The announcement by the Food and Drug Administration represents another important — though incremental — step in efforts to expand testing options.
Regulators granted emergency use for a similar home test last month, but that one needs a doctor’s prescription.
The agency’s action Tuesday allows sales in places like drugstores “where a patient can buy it, swab their nose, run the test and find out their results in as little as 20 minutes,” said FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, in a statement.
Meanwhile, talks on a long-delayed COVID-19 aid package intensified Tuesday as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi summoned other top congressional leaders for a potentially critical meeting.
Pelosi, D-Calif., spoke with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin for more than an hour, her office tweeted, and Mnuchin will join the make-or-break meeting of Capitol Hill’s “big four” leaders by phone.
The uptick in activity could be a sign that an agreement is near, though COVID-19 relief talks have been notoriously difficult.
In other developments:
Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday that he’s looking forward to getting vaccinated for COVID-19 and that he expects to receive his first dose in the next few days.
President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris aim to take their oaths of office outside the U.S. Capitol building as inauguration planners seek to craft an event that captures the traditional grandeur of the historic ceremony while complying with COVID-19 protocols. Biden’s team is urging supporters not to come to Washington, D.C., to celebrate the inauguration.
After a punishing fall that left hospitals struggling, some Midwestern states are seeing a decline in new coronavirus cases. But the signs of improvement are offset by the infection’s accelerating spread on both coasts.
Hundreds more hospitals around the country began dispensing COVID-19 shots to their workers in a rapid expansion of the U.S. vaccination drive Tuesday, while a second vaccine moved to the cusp of government authorization.
A panel of outside experts is expected to vote to recommend Moderna’s vaccine formula Thursday, with the Food and Drug Administration’s green light coming soon thereafter.
A scientist taking part in the World Health Organization’s mission track down the origins of the coronavirus says they plan to sift through samples and medical data from China to help determine where the bug came from.
