One week after the FDA granted emergency approval to a point-of-care test purporting to produce results in under 45 minutes, the agency has granted "emergency use authorization" to Abbott Labs so the company can bring to market a rapid-response test for COVID-19 that can tell if somebody is infected in under five minutes, and is portable enough to be used in practically any health-care setting.

The medical-device maker plans to supply 50,000 tests a day beginning April 1, said John Frels, vice president of research and development at Abbott Diagnostics. The molecular test scans samples for fragments of the coronavirus genome, which can quickly be detected when present at high levels. An even more thorough search to definitively rule out an infection can take up to 13 minutes, BBG reports.

However, the FDA has only authorized the test for use in "authorized laboratories and patient care settings", mostly hospitals and approved public and private labs that are already running tests.

The company described the test as a "gamechanger."

"This is really going to provide a tremendous opportunity for front-line caregivers, those having to diagnose a lot of infections, to close the gap with our testing," Frels said. "A clinic will be able to turn that result around quickly, while the patient is waiting."