LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Kroger will begin providing eligible frontline employees with COVID-19 tests that will allow individuals to collect medical samples in their homes and send the results to a lab.
Kroger said it hopes to make the home collection kits available to other companies and organizations "in the coming weeks" and hopes to process up to 60,000 tests per week by the end of the month.
The company said in a news release that the tests will be available for "eligible patients who meet established clinical criteria for likely COVID-19 infection or exposure."
Patients will complete an assessment online and, if they qualify, will be shipped a kit, which includes a nasal swab, transport vial, and packaging to return the shipment. Patients will receive instructions, via two-way video chat, from a health care professional.
Kroger said that after shipping the sample to a lab, patients should receive a response in less than 72 hours. Patients who test positive for infection will receive a call from a health care professional.
Kroger said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted the company Emergency Use Authorization for the home test collection kit. The agency said on its website that such an authorization enables it to "allow unapproved medical products or unapproved uses of approved medical products to be used in an emergency to diagnose, treat, or prevent serious or life-threatening diseases or conditions caused by (chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear) threat agents when there are no adequate, approved, and available alternatives."
The kit initially will be available in 14 states, including Indiana and Kentucky.
The Cincinnati-based company said it is partnering on the tests with Covington, Kentucky-based Gravity Diagnostics.
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