The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA EUA) offers emergency use authorizations (EUAs) for unapproved products or new uses for approved items in urgent situations where no suitable alternatives exist. Dozens of companies have sought and received EUAs for their testing kits that screen for SARS-CoV-2 — more commonly referred to as COVID-19 or the novel coronavirus.

The FDA makes a distinction between approved”products and those that got EUAs. It cautions that EUA is not the same as an FDA EUA-cleared or FDA EUA product. However, many media sources — and some distributors and manufacturers of these tests — use the word “approval” or “approved” to discuss FDA EUA testing products that received EUAs.