Amazon Covid test kit now available online

San Francisco : E-commerce major Amazon has started selling its own test kits for Covid-19. The test kit is on sale for $39.99 on the e-commerce platform and has one-day shipping through Prime in some areas of the US, the Verge reported.

Results from the test will appear on an Amazon diagnostics website, originally designed for use by Amazon employees.

To use the test, a person needs to take a swab from his/her own nose at home and place it in a box with a prepaid shipping return label. The swabs are then sent to a centralised lab.

Amazon got the US Food and Drug Administration's approval on its Covid-19 test kit in March and planned to use it for its onsite employee testing programme.

Amazon also offers a Covid-19 testing kit made by the genomics company DxTerity and a rapid 10-minute testing kit made by Quidel. They sell for $99 and $24.95, respectively, the report said.

The in-house Covid-19 test kit is the latest in Amazon's expansion into the healthcare segment. In March, the company had started offering its telehealth and at-home healthcare programme to other employers.

It is also offering six-month prescriptions for common medications starting at $6 through its Amazon Pharmacy programme, it added.