Healthcare company Abbott (NYSE:ABT) reported on Friday the receipt of US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for a fast molecular point-of-care test for the detection of novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

According to the company, the test, which will deliver positive results in five minutes and negative results in 13 minutes, will run on the its ID NOW platform, providing rapid results in physicians' offices, urgent care clinics as well as hospital emergency departments.

The company will launch the ID NOW COVID-19 tests next week to healthcare providers in urgent care settings in the US, where the ID NOW instruments are already in use. It is working with the Administration to deploy tests to areas where they can have the greatest impact.

In conjunction, the company's ID NOW COVID-19 test follows the Abbott m2000 RealTime SARS-CoV-2 EUA test, which runs on the m2000 RealTime System located in hospital and reference labs around the world. Its expects to produce about five million tests per month in total.

The ID NOW platform is small, lightweight (6.6 pounds) and portable and uses molecular technology with a high degree of accuracy. The isothermal system is used for the qualitative detection of infectious diseases. Its isothermal nucleic acid amplification technology provides molecular results in just minutes, allowing clinicians to make evidence-based clinical decisions during a patient visit.