JULY 8, 2022 — 400 LAYOFFS AT RAPID-ANTIGEN KIT FACILITIES
The company has announced a reduction in force at facilities that produce rapid antigen tests for Covid-19.
400 full-time employees at its locations in Westbrook, Maine (310), and Scarborough, Maine (90) will be impacted.
According to a company spokesperson, “We’ve recently seen a significant, rapid decline in COVID-19 testing demand and anticipate this trend will continue. Because of this, we are reducing our workforce that produces rapid tests in Westbrook and Scarborough. These sites will continue to play an important role in manufacturing tests for COVID-19 and other infectious diseases around the world. We’re grateful for the contributions our workers in Maine made to our country during the pandemic.”
APRIL 3, 2020 — Original Post…
With the availability of a fast, point-of-care test for the COVID-19 virus, it is possible that the government, federal, state, or local, may require an individual to be tested before returning to work. One to prevent further spread of the insidious disease, and two, to estimate the number of employees who might be infected or re-infected if a suitable vaccine is not found.
The good news is that the Lake Bluff, Illinois-based Abbott Laboratories, major medical devices, and health care technology company, has announced that it has been granted conditional emergency use FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approval to field its new COVID-19 test.
This is the "fastest available molecular point-of-care test for the detection of novel coronavirus (COVID-19), delivering positive results in as little as five minutes and negative results in 13 minutes. The test will run on the company's ID NOW platform, providing rapid results in a wide range of healthcare settings such as physicians' offices, urgent care clinics, and hospital emergency departments."
The ID NOW platform is small, lightweight (6.6 pounds) and portable (the size of a small toaster), and uses molecular technology, which is valued by clinicians and the scientific community for its high degree of accuracy. ID NOW is already the most widely available molecular point-of-care testing platform in the U.S. today. -Abbott will be making ID NOW COVID-19 tests available next week to healthcare providers in urgent care settings in the U.S., where the majority of an estimated 18,000 ID NOW instruments are in use today.
A more comprehensive test is fast becoming available for use in hospitals and clinical laboratories using the company's Abbott m2000 RealTime SARS-CoV-2 EUA test, which runs on the m2000 RealTime System located in hospitals and reference labs around the world.
Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?