BURLINGTON — Burlington-based LabCorp is offering a new home-based testing service to screen patients for COVID-19 infections before they proceed with surgeries and other important medical treatments.

The At-Home COVID-19 Test Collection Service received Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on July 1.

LabCorp is launching the service with “select” health care providers initially and then will make it available to more health systems, hospitals, and surgical centers in coming weeks, the company announced in a news release.

“The continuing COVID-19 crisis has forced the delay of many appointments, screenings and surgeries, putting people with serious medical conditions at increased risk,” said Brian Caveney, M.D., chief medical officer and president of LabCorp Diagnostics. “Our LabCorp At Home service is simple for doctors to order and convenient for patients to use, enabling surgeries and other important treatments to get back on track so patients can manage and improve their health.”

The service enables a doctor to order a COVID-19 test collection kit for a patient through a digital interface with LabCorp. Once the order is placed, the company will send the kit to the patient, who will collect a mucous sample using a nasal swab and send the specimen back to LabCorp via FedEx.

LabCorp will analyze the sample for the presence or absence of a nucleic acid sequence unique to SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The company will then deliver the patient’s test results to the healthcare provider’s electronic medical record and the patient’s LabCorp Patient Portal.

The result helps the doctor decide whether it’s safe to proceed with surgery or other treatment.

This home collection kit and test have not been FDA cleared or approved but are allowed for emergency use.

The service is the latest offering by LabCorp to help manage the COVID-19 pandemic. The company also recently introduced:

  • COVID-19 IgG antibody test collections and analysis for people who think they may have had COVID-19 but do not have symptoms.
  • Xcellerate COVID-19, a clinical research platform for patient studies, developed by Covance, the company’s drug-development business.
  • PhenoSense, a neutralizing antibody assay that assesses the capacity of antibodies in patient plasma to inhibit SARS-CoV-2. Information from the test could be used in the development of vaccines for preventing COVID-19 and the screening of convalescent plasma for treating patients infected by the virus.

LabCorp is a global life sciences company that provides clinical laboratory and drug development services. It reported revenue of more than $11.5 billion in 2019.

LabCorp, an S&P 500 company, employs about 7,300 people across North Carolina including about 3,600 people in Alamance County, where it is the largest private employer. Globally the company employs nearly 61,000 people.

(c) North Carolina Biotechnology Center