CVS CVS Health Corporation

By Sharon Terlep 

CVS Health Corp. will offer drive-through testing for the new coronavirus at two locations starting Monday.

The testing, in parking lots outside of stores in Atlanta and Lincoln, R.I., is part of an effort by several U.S. companies to help ramp up testing that has lagged since the pandemic's early days.

The tests will be available to the public who live in the state and meet age guidelines and criteria set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Patients must preregister on CVS's website.

CVS will use a test by Abbott Laboratories that can detect the virus in a patient sample in as few as five minutes and return negative results in 13 minutes. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration provided emergency authorization to Abbott for the test at the end of March.

The tests, which are free, will be administered by health care workers employed by CVS's in-store clinics. The tests won't be offered inside CVS stores or clinics.

A CVS in Shrewsbury, Mass., since mid-March has been offering drive-through testing in its parking lot for first responders, such as health-care workers and police.

A slow start to testing for the new coronavirus has hampered the country's overall response, with many U.S. labs still grappling to acquire supplies and set up testing sites. More tests are becoming available, but availability across the U.S. is highly uneven.

Write to Sharon Terlep at sharon.terlep@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 06, 2020 08:52 ET (12:52 GMT)

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