Omicron variant spikes demand for travel testing during holidays

Top executives of Abbot Laboratories have said that the company is ramping up the production of its COVID-19 tests. The decision has been taken by the pharma giant after the high contagious variant omicron during the holiday season has led to an unprecedented increase in the demand. Robert Ford the Chief Executive Officer said that Abbot is expected to produce 70 million of its at-home BinaxNow tests this month. Ford added that he is constantly working with his team to see if they could get close to the 100 million figure.

The omicron variant of COVID is highly contagious and is driving everyday infections to pandemic records. The rapid spread of the variant has put a stress to the United States virus testing infrastructure. It has also put limits to the drugstores on how many at-home tests people can purchase. People are also facing long lines outside clinics that conduct the traditional lab-based test. Ford has also assured that they are working closely with White House to make sure that every test that they make does not sit in their inventory.

The BinaxNOW by Abbot is one of the best known rapid antigen test that has been authorized for use in the United States. The demand for the rapid tests has increased ever since the surge of the omicron variant in December 2021. The challenge has been to deal with the shortage of supplies that became one of the major cause of frustration among the people from companies.

Abbot on January 6, 2022 said that it is developing fresh wearable technology that has been designed to track ketones, glucose, lactate and other physical figures that would help people understand their health. The new technology is known as Lingo and is built on Abbott’s diabetes-monitoring products. Ford during an interview said that Lingo would help the consumers take active control of their own health.

Photo Credits: Pixabay