Lab to ship antibody test w/o FDA, others approved

STATEWIDE - Abbott Laboratories announced the release of an antibody test.

It could detect if people have been infected with the coronavirus and have recovered.

The test could also broadly help determine how widespread the infection is in the US.

Abbott said it's shipping a million of the tests to customers immediately.

And it plans to produce and ship up to 20 million tests by the end of June.

Abbott's test has not been authorized by The Food and Drug Administration.

But the company is legally allowed to distribute it under regulatory flexibilities issued by the agency.

Meanwhile, the FDA on Wednesday did approved two other new coronavirus antibody tests.

The new tests come from Chembio Diagnostic Systems and Ortho Clinical Diagnostics.

They join a test authorized in early April from the company Cellex.