One of the biggest bottlenecks in testing people for the novel coronavirus has not involved complex machines to detect genetic material or molecular biology. It’s been a shortage of swabs to take samples.
On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration announced that it would allow a broader range of swabs to be used in tests, including some made of polyester that should be far easier to manufacture.
“This action today demonstrates the ingenuity that results from FDA working in partnership with the private sector,” FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said in a statement. “The Trump Administration has been working side-by-side with our industry partners to fight this pandemic, and today is a great example of that work.”
The FDA also announced that US Cotton, the country’s largest manufacturer of cotton swabs, has developed a polyester-based swab fully compatible with Covid-19 testing. The firm plans to manufacture the swabs in “large quantities,” the FDA said…
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