Americas

Home page

Americas

U.S. health officials seek emergency approval to use diagnostic test for new coronavirus

24 January 2020 02:36 (UTC +04:00)

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday it is seeking special emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration to allow U.S. states to use a CDC-developed diagnostic test to detect the new coronavirus from China, APA reports quoting Reuters.

Currently, states with suspected cases of the new virus must send samples to the CDC for confirmation, as was the case with the U.S. resident in Washington state who was infected while visiting Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the outbreak.

China has put millions of people on lockdown in Wuhan and another nearby city as authorities around the world worked to prevent the virus’s global spread.