May 27, 2021 – Thermo Fisher Scientific (Waltham, MA) announced that its TaqPath COVID-19 CE-IVD RT PCR Kit was independently validated as meeting the performance characteristics for the Day 2 and Day 8 COVID-19 quarantine protocol testing required for international travelers arriving in the United Kingdom.
The UK has instituted quarantine rules for travelers entering the country that vary depending on country of departure, but most people will be legally required to quarantine for 10 days upon arrival.
On days two and eight of their isolation, those travelers are obliged to take a PCR test to monitor for an active SARS-CoV-2 infection. Thermo Fisher’s TaqPath kit is now permitted to be used by laboratories and clinics in that surveillance.
The TaqPathCOVID-19 CE-IVD RT PCR Kit is a fast, highly sensitive multiplex diagnostic solution that contains both the assays and controls needed for the real-time PCR detection of RNA from the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
In an independent validation study, Thermo Fisher says the kit was shown to have clinical sensitivity of 100% with 95% Confidence Interval and a clinical specificity of 100% with 95% Confidence Interval.
The TaqPathCOVID-19 CE-IVD RT PCR Kit is compatible with most widely used real-time PCR instruments, the company says.