CVS Pharmacy, Walgreens and Walmart now selling Abbott’s at-home COVID-19 test OTC
Three leading chains are adding an OTC at-home COVID-19 test to their offerings. CVS Pharmacy, Walgreens and Walmart have added Abbott’s BinaxNow COVID-19 Antigen Self Test to their assortments. CVS also is adding several other COVID-19 self-testing products.
Abbott’s BinaxNow self-test is sold in kits with two tests per box, meant to enable two tests over three days via nasal swab, with at least 36 hours between tests, per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
“Testing, whether at community testing sites or providers, is crucial to telling if individuals are infected,” Julie Barber, Walmart senior vice president of health and wellness, said in a blog post on the company’s website. Testing helps keep our communities safe, allows us to travel and to hug and see loved ones, while still following CDC guidance to keep ourselves and others safe.”
Walmart will be selling the test kits for $19.88. CVS Pharmacy and Walgreens will be selling them for the manufacturer’s suggested price of $23.99.
“Even as vaccines become more widely available, COVID-19 testing remains a critical tool to keep our communities safe. The addition of this over-the-counter test in-store will help ensure our customers have access to testing solutions when and how they need it – at home or at one of our conveniently located testing sites,” said John Standley, president of Walgreens. “Working with Abbott and other partners, Walgreens now offers the most comprehensive suite of COVID-19 diagnostic testing options in America, helping encourage consistent, widespread testing.”
Walgreens said the test would be available for purchase on Walgreens.com starting this week, with nationwide availability for in-store, curbside and same-day delivery purchase later this week. It joins the retailer’s other COVID-19 testing offerings, which include the Pixel by Labcorp COVID-19 PCR Test Home Collection Kit, which it began offering over the counter in as many as 6,000 stores in February.
At CVS Pharmacy, alongside the Abbott test — which will be available online and at more than 5,600 locations nationwide beginning this week — the company is rolling out two other COVID-19 testing options for over-the-counter sale in certain states. The Ellume COVID-19 Home Test Kit, which requires no lab processing and delivers results via app in 15 minutes, will begin being offered at select locations in Massachusetts and Rhode Island this week, with increasing availability online and the expectation to be in most locations by the end of May. Also being stocked now in select stores in Alabama, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island is the Pixel by Labcorp kit.
“Access to testing continues to be an important part of the nation’s pandemic response. Making OTC COVID-19 tests available to our customers helps remove barriers by providing convenient options for testing,” said George Coleman, senior vice president and chief merchant of CVS Pharmacy. “CVS Health has been a leader in providing accessible testing in communities nationwide, and we continue to bring new solutions to market to ensure that consumers have a variety of COVID-19 testing options available to them.”