On Mar. 26, 2020, Thermo Fisher Scientific announced it had received the CE mark in the European Union (EU) for its diagnostic test to detect nucleic acid from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

The Thermo Fisher test, which uses Applied Biosystems TaqPath Assay and real-time PCR technology, is designed to provide patient results within four hours of a sample being received by a lab. The estimated time-to-result also includes time for sample preparation and instrument analysis.