Abbott Laboratories said it is launching its third Covid-19 test.
The test is a lab-based serology blood test for the detection of the antibody, IgG, that identifies if a person has had the novel coronavirus. Antibody testing is an important next step to tell if someone has been previously infected and will provide more understanding of the virus, including how long antibodies stay in the body and if they provide immunity, Abbott said.
Abbott said the tests will ship in the U.S. starting Thursday.
The company said it is significantly scaling up its manufacturing for antibody testing and is expecting to immediately ship close to 1 million tests this week to U.S. customers, and will ship a total of 4 million tests in total for April. The company is ramping up to 20 million tests in the U.S. in June and beyond.