Image source: Quest Diagnostics

(Reuters) – Quest Diagnostics said on Wednesday it saw a higher recovery in its testing volumes in the United States where state and local governments were slowly lifting restrictions after the coronavirus lockdowns.

The diagnostics company said the volumes had recovered faster than it had expected at the time of reporting its first-quarter results in April, when it saw them decline in excess of 40% during the last two weeks of March.

If the testing volumes, including its COVID-19 molecular and antibody tests, continue to rise, Quest’s adjusted profit for the second quarter could be in the “range of breakeven to slightly profitable”, the company said.

Quest received emergency use authorization for its self-collection COVID-19 test kit from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday, and expects to have more than half a million kits available by end of June.

Reporting by Trisha Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli

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Source: Reuters