Chembio Diagnostics rapid DPP COVID-19 serological point-of-care test for the detection of IgM and IgG antibodies is now available in the US.

The Dual Path Platform (DPP) test, which takes a blood sample from a simple finger prick, is run on Chembio's MicroReader 1 and MicroReader 2 analyzers, which are produced by Chembio Germany. The test can detect an acute infection phase, as determined by the level of IgM antibodies in the blood produced by the body in response to the virus and can determine if a patient may still be infectious and possibly transmit the infection to another person. 

The test returns results in 15 minutes. The IgM/IgG results are in numerical form, which can aid clinicians to determine current or past exposure to the virus and helps monitor infection progression.

Chembio expects to begin shipping the product sometime this month and is working with its partner LumiraDx to provide DPP COVID-19 point of care tests to run on both the LumiraDx and Cheminio DPP, allowing both companies to scale up on market demand. The tests received emergency authorization from the FDA, according to their recent news release. But as yet has not appeared listed on FDA site. (6th April)

Chembio currently has antibody tests under FDA-EUA for both the Zika and Ebola viruses.