Luminex Corporation announced that it has received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a new expanded version of its NxTAG®Respiratory Pathogen Panel (RPP) that includes the SARS-CoV-2 virus for high-throughput respiratory testing. The new test is a combination of the company's original NxTAG RPP, an FDA-cleared in vitro diagnostic for syndromic respiratory infection testing, and SARS-CoV-2. Respiratory infections such as COVID-19 and influenza can be challenging to differentiate and diagnose because they often have overlapping symptoms. NxTAG RPP is a multiplex, high-throughput test designedto enable simultaneous detection of the most common respiratory pathogens for a fast, syndromic testing approach. Following the addition of the SARS-CoV-2 virus target, the panel now includes 19 viral and 2 bacterial targets, combining the most common respiratory pathogens in one panel to help facilitate the rapid identification of various individual and co-occurring infectious pathogens. NxTAG RPP provides scalable throughput, allowing clinical labs to run up to 96 samples at a time—generating results in approximately four hours with minimal hands-on time. The test runs on Luminex's easy-to-use, compact MAGPIX® System and is designed for use in high-complexity molecular laboratories. Importantly, the NxTAG RPP + SARS-CoV-2 Assay is expected to detect new variants of the coronavirus. An in silico analysis of molecular probes used in the assay compared to SARS-CoV-2 sequences available in the GISAID database as of February 11, 2021, determined that key sequences still match and should yield a positive result. The analysis included variants originally detected in the United Kingdom (B.1.1.7), South Africa (B.1.351 or 20H/501Y.V2), Brazil (P.1 lineage or 20J/501Y.V3), and California (one of five reoccurring mutations that constitute the B.1.429 lineage and CAL20C).