Coronavirus: US company to offer home testing kits

Everlywell will be the first in the country to offer the service

Everlywell now offer home testing (GIORGIO BENVENUTI EPA)

A home testing company is going to offer coronavirus tests from 23 March.

The company, Everlywell already offers a range of testing and services, including food sensitivity and a heart health test.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved testing for some private companies at the end of February, but Everlywell are the first to offer it at home.

The company announced in a blog post that they will initially supply 30,000 tests but plan to scale up to 250,000 every week, depending on supplies available.

Although the tests will not make a profit for Everlywell, the price for a home kit will be $135.​

In an attempt to make testing widely available, Everlywell said they have reached out “to government officials and public health departments to see if the test can be made available for free.”

There have been concerns that not enough people are getting tested for coronavirus in the US and Dr Anthony Fauci claimed last week that the healthcare system was not equipped to deal with the pandemic.

Speaking at a House hearing concerning Covid-19 on Thursday, Dr Fauci said that the country’s health system prevented widespread tests.

“The system is not really geared to what we need right now,” said Dr Fauci, “that is a failing. Let’s admit it.”

Answering questions from congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, he said that the country was not prepared for the level of testing needed.

“The idea of anybody getting it easily the way people in other countries are doing it, we’re not set up for that,” he said. “Do I think we should be? Yes. But we’re not.”​

According to the Covid Tracking Project at their last update, 82,571 had been tested so far in the US.

Some 9,487 cases of the disease have been recorded so far in the US, and 157 deaths.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended a two-week ban on gatherings of more than 50 people as part of the battle to contain the spread of the contagion.