The Food and Drug Administration has approved an at-home test that can detect and discern between COVID-19 infection and two strains of the flu, Influenza A and B, continuing the shift from clinical to home-diagnostic care that blossomed during the height of the pandemic.
Manufactured by medical technology company Lucira Health, the test uses a nasal swab to detect the presence of a virus in 30 minutes.
The emergency use authorization, announced Friday in a news release from the Food and Drug Administration, followed a surge in respiratory cases in the fall that drove up hospitalizations nationwide and in Allegheny County. National and local respiratory cases now are trending downward.