The Covid-19 Test Home Collection Kit is comprised of a nasal swab, transport vial, instruction sheet, prepaid shipping label, and packing materials for return shipment of the sample to the laboratory

Kroger

Kroger Health has secured FDA EUA status for Covid-19 Test Home Collection Kit. (Credit: The Kroger Co.)

Kroger Health has secured emergency use authorisation (EUA) from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Covid-19 Test Home Collection Kit.

Kroger’s test solution is said to combine the safety and convenience of at-home sample collection with the expert guidance of a telehealth consultation to help enhance the quality of the collection process.

The Covid-19 Test Home Collection Kit will also be provided to frontline associates across Kroger’s family of companies based on the requirement.

Kroger Health, along with Gravity Diagnostics, aims to quickly expand the availability of the home collection kits to other companies and organisations

Kroger Health, along with Gravity Diagnostics, intends to quickly expand the availability of the home collection kits to other companies and organisations to help process up to 60,000 tests per week by the end of this July. Gravity Diagnostics is a full-service clinical laboratory located in Covington of Kentucky.

Kroger Health’s Covid-19 Test Home Collection Kit has to be conducted under the guidance of a licenced healthcare professional.

The home collection kit is comprised of a nasal swab, transport vial, instruction sheet, prepaid shipping label, and packing materials for return shipment of the sample to the laboratory.

The healthcare professional will guide the home collection process via telehealth, upon receiving the home collection kit.

Later, the patient will overnight ship their sample to the laboratory for processing through a molecular diagnostic test. The average time for processing of the sample is between 24 and 48 hours.

The molecular diagnostic test, which will help identify parts of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, can be used to diagnose active infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The results are released to the patient’s electronic medical record portal, if test results are negative for an active infection.

According to the company, the test results will only be accessible to the patient and only shared with their organization if the patient authorises the release of the results.

The new test home collection kit will be initially distributed in the US states such as Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia. Kroger Health will expand the distribution of the test to other states in the coming weeks.

Kroger Health president Colleen Lindholz said: “Kroger Heath remains committed to helping people live healthier lives through our multi-disciplinary team of licensed, trained and experienced healthcare providers.

“Over the past few months, Kroger Health has been providing Americans with access to Covid-19 testing through community test sites across the country; however, we’ve observed some individuals do not have access to transportation or live near these community testing locations.”

Recently, Babson Diagnostics has secured FDA EUA status for its SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody test. Babson’s aC19G1 is a Covid-19 serology test that facilitates the qualitative detection of IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 with maximum sensitivity and specificity.