The company plans to use the kit for its employee testing program. Amazon obtained Food and Drug Administration authorization for a COVID-19 test made by its subsidiary STS Lab Holdco. The test is done using a nasal self swab under the supervision of a health care provider.
FDA’s authorization said that “Amazon plans to use the Amazon Real-Time RT-PCR Test for Detecting SARS-CoV-2 (Amazon Test) as part of the company’s overall Coronavirus Disease 2019 (“COVID-19”) preparedness and response program,”. Some Amazon employees can automatically be given testing appointments every 14 days. The tests are voluntary. The authorization also said that “Amazon has partnered with a third-party healthcare provider who will issue the necessary prescriptions and individual test orders,”.
The company said it had the infrastructure to run thousands of tests for employees each day. The new test is a modification of another COVID-19 test made by BGI Genomics. The company uses the modified version for the Amazon test on August 28th, 2020. Between late September and early December 2020, it has done 560,000 samples, according to the authorization. Amazon started selling at-home COVID-19 testing kits made by genomics and continues to expand into health care. It starts in-house telehealth and at-home health care programs for other companies.
