New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health has unveiled a three-in-one swab to test for COVID-19, flu and respiratory syncytial virus.
The test is a polymerase chain reaction test, and patients can request to have it administered at home using an app. Health system officials said the LabFly program, which brings testing services to patients' homes and workplaces, is part of their approach to handle the respiratory virus season.
Already, Northwell's Cohen Children's Medical Center in Manhasset, N.Y., is seeing 10 times as much RSV as last month. The health system expects RSV to peak in November, since activity began to tick up in October.
"Over the last two weeks, we have seen a major increase in RSV infections, including hospitalizations, and our children's hospital is already filling up," Lorry Rubin, MD, chief of the division of pediatric infectious disease at the children's hospital, said in a Nov. 2 news release. "Last year was a dramatically severe year for hospitalizations of young children with RSV. This fall, we're seeing the same pattern."