As the total death toll from the COVID-19 virus reaches all time highs with the United States figures surpassing the 140,000 deaths averaging 5,000 fatalities per week, efforts in trying to at least identify those infected has intensified greatly as of late.
Equally alarming is the rise in global death toll due to the virus that now stands at 600,000 and more than 14 million cases that prompted introduction of measures to somehow mitigate rise in infection through detection.
In this connection, General Manager Lisa Roche of Halo Industry, an instant test manufacturing company for the past 18 years Halo Industry has now introduced their COVID-19 IgM/IgG Whole Blood Tests to 6Beds and the RCFE community exclusively and will be opening an RCFE facility shortly.
>> Purchase COVID-19 Test Kit
Each test kit consists of 25 of each item: test, pipette, lancet, testing instruction, and buffer bottle to run all 25 tests.
Cost per Kit: $375
“We are only offering these tests to RCFE facilities partly due to the immense demand for this type of test, and the absolute need of these tests in the RCFE community. We want to make sure that we can fill the need of our new community,” Roche stated. “The RCFE needs to provide their facility number to assure the tests are going to the RCFE community. Roche clarified that the test only provides a preliminary result, therefore not confirmatory but merely designed to screen, a “screening” tool that can tell you if the virus is present where a positive result does NOT necessarily mean a current infection, but represents a different stage of the disease after infection.
“The Halo test is for IgM/IgG. IgG positive suggests previous infection or latent infection while both positive suggest recent exposure,” Roche explained. “This is helpful in screening potential new residents, staff, or anybody entering your facility. It gives you a result in 15-30 minutes. Strong positives specimens may produce positive results in as little as 1 minute. At that point if it is positive, I don’t recommend that person enter your facility. They would need a lab test at that point for confirmation and a trip to medical professional for advice on how to process next.”
Roche also clarified that these test kits have not been approved by Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) as it’s too early for FDA to have gone through all the procedures to approve a test, yet as It is a very long process to get a 510k approval from FDA.
Roche added that each test kit consisting of 25 of each item: test, pipette, lancet, testing instruction, and buffer bottle to run all 25 tests costs $375.00 and they are trying to make sure that every facility has the ability to get at least 1 kit per facility, and wants as many facilities as possible to have access.
“We do not have this product advertised on our web site. I can be contacted directly at Lisa@HaloIndustry.com Please send me an e-mail indicating how many kits you would like to purchase, along with your facility name, address, phone#, and facility #. This will help us ensure that the tests we are selling are going directly to the facilities. I will send an Order Confirmation along with payment options,” Roche advised RCFEs.
Roche’s company Halo Industry, a highly regarded manufacturer in the industry that has a long history with in vitro diagnostic tests, and have relationships with many other manufacturers and currently has an instant test product for E.coli and Salmonella called the Inspector, Halo Industry has been a manufacturing company for 15 years, manufactured Instant Tests for Drugs of abuse and was also the sister company to Harmony Juice that manufactured products which was geared to served the health care industry. Harmony Juice manufactured juice concentrates, and made Pro-Cal plus, a nutritional supplement drink that Halo Industry is re-introducing to the RCFE community as well.