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A company that makes rapid-result tests to detect the new coronavirus plans to add a new production center in Westbrook.
Abbott Laboratories is renovating and expanding a building that was used as a sporting goods distribution center. The building will be converted into a manufacturing facility for the COVID-19 test kits. COVID-19 is the illness caused by the coronavirus.
[Our COVID-19 tracker contains the most recent information on Maine cases by county]
The Illinois-based company also received approval to expand its existing facility in Scarborough, where 50,000 test kits are produced daily, a town official told the Portland Press Herald.
All told, 2 million kits have been distributed, a spokesman said. The kits can produce positive results within 15 minutes.
A staffing company that’s assisting Abbott said it’s looking for 1,000 to 2,000 workers to produce the test kits.
Watch: What Maine is doing to expand contact tracing
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