Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update: Daily Roundup June 10, 2020

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update: Daily Roundup June 10, 2020

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today continued to take action in the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic: FDA and NIH have made updates to the CURE ID crowd-sourcing app to make it easier for healthcare providers to share — via mobile device or website — their experiences treating COVID-19 patients who are unable to be enrolled in a clinical trial. CURE ID’s web-based repository lets providers share experiences with novel uses of existing drugs in treating difficult-to-treat infectious diseases. Healthcare providers worldwide are encouraged to share their COVID-19 treatment experiences via CURE ID. The FDA issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) to Illumina, Inc., for the first COVID-19 diagnostic test utilizing next-generation sequence technology. The FDA authorized the Illumina COVIDSeq Test for the qualitative detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA from respiratory specimens collected from individuals suspected of a COVID-19 infection by their healthcare provider. Next-generation sequencing is a type of diagnostic technology that can determine, among other things, the genetic sequence of a virus. Comparing sequencing results over time can help scientists understand if and how viruses mutate. Testing updates: To date, the FDA has authorized 131 tests under EUAs, which include 111 molecular tests, 19 antibody tests, and 1 antigen test.