Everlywell announced that an at-home test kit for COVID-19 would be available, starting Monday, March 23.
The initial supply of 30,000 tests is a significant increase in total COVID-19 tests that have been processed in the United States to date. The company plans to have testing and diagnosis capacity for a quarter of a million people weekly.
“Everlywell was founded to give people affordable, convenient access to lab testing. Never has our mission been more important,” said Julia Cheek, founder and CEO of Everlywell, a company that sells at-home lab tests for cholesterol, heart health, Lyme Disease, and other maladies. “Our team has been working around the clock with top scientists and laboratories in the nation to develop a test that we will make available at the lowest price possible while covering our costs, at no profit to the company. We have also reached out to government and public health officials to explore possibilities to provide it for free.”
The test can be requested online by people who have COVID-19 symptoms. The COVID-19 test will be shipped to customers with everything needed to collect a sample at home and safely ship that sample to a certified laboratory partner. Secure digital results will be available online within 48 hours of the lab receiving the sample. Free telehealth consultations with an independent, board-certified physician will be available for those with positive results.
Everlywell’s laboratory partners that are conducting the tests comply with the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization for COVID-19 testing. Positive results will be communicated to all mandated federal and state reporting agencies.
“As the COVID-19 public health emergency continues to worsen with community spread across the United States, there is an unmet medical need to broaden the access to testing for SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in a responsible manner to complement and help alleviate the potential overload on healthcare systems and healthcare providers if testing was only available in the limited clinical setting,” Frank Ong, chief medical and scientific officer of Everlywell, said.
To access a COVID-19 test, consumers can go to www.everlywell.com. There, they will be asked to complete a screening questionnaire based on guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC). The test will be available for $135 at no profit to Everlywell and will be covered by participating HSA and FSA providers. Overnight sample delivery is included in the kit.
Given the high demand for testing, the company will work rapidly to make more tests available as the global supply shortage for COVID-19 diagnostic kits is addressed.
“The extreme shortage of tests for COVID-19 puts millions of Americans at risk,” Cheek said. “Everlywell is committed to helping stop the spread of COVID-19 in the U.S. by making this test widely available. As the national leader in at-home lab testing, we want to use our resources and expertise to help as many people as we can. We are committed to this fight, and we’re here to help.”