At-home COVID testing kit submitted to Health Ministry for approval

• Published date: 30 March 2021
• Author: JERUSALEM POST STAFF
• Date: 30 March 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The QuickVue At-Home test, recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), was developed by the Quidel Corporation in the US and is imported to Israel by the Rimipharm Group, which is also behind the Sofia rapid coronavirus test.

Users can receive results from the test in just 10 minutes with a nose swab that even teens can do on their own.

"From an epidemiological perspective, I think that the best, most powerful use of these tests is to have just the population using them twice a week on an ongoing basis just to keep our [R reproduction level] below one and stop outbreaks from happening," said Michael Mina, assistant professor of epidemiology and a faculty member in the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at Harvard University, in a press conference earlier this month.

"Don't change anything if you're negative, but if you are positive, you stay home and isolate. That's a very, very powerful epidemiological approach," he said. "Don't worry too much about the individual metrics – but if you are positive, don't go out. That alone – if we could get enough tests out to the community – would stop these outbreaks."

"In recent weeks we have received thousands of inquiries from parents and...