PORTLAND, Maine — Martin's Point Health Care, which has mobile coronavirus testing locations in Portland and Brunswick, is the first health care organization in Maine to receive new rapid COVID-19 tests, developed by Abbott Laboratories.
The company, based in Chicago, has a Scarborough facility. So some of the tests are being made here in Maine. According to Abbott Labs, the tests are able to deliver results in a matter of minutes rather than days.
Martin's Point Health Care, based in Portland, announced this week it is receiving the first shipment of 1,000 of the newly developed tests. It started using the tests Monday, April 6.
Martin's Point Health Care has requested to receive 1,000 Abbott tests per week in order to significantly increase the availability of testing to their patients. Right now the testing is only available to patients of Martin's Point Health Care. However, they are accepting new patients. Testing is available by appointment.
On Wednesday Maine CDC received five devices and five test kits from Abbott Labs.
"That gives us the capacity for 115 tests," explained Robert Long, the Communications Director, Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
"Each kit has material to conduct 23 tests on patient samples. Originally, Maine expected to receive 15 devices with the capacity to conduct about 2,300 tests. Maine CDC and others in state government continue to work with Abbott Labs to increase the availability of these devices and test kits," he said.
Long also explained testing devices and kits cited in the Martin’s Point Health Care release are not part of the allocation to Maine CDC.
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