DNA - XpresSpa up 7% on Omicron COVID variant detection airport program

Shares of XpresSpa (XSPA +6.5%) are up 7% after the company said that a collaboration with Ginkgo Bioworks (DNA +1.6%) was able to detect the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in tests from international passengers at Newark International Airport. Ginkgo collected, identified, and sequenced  a pooled sample that contained the variant in passengers arriving from South Africa and the United Kingdom. The collection program, Concentric by Ginkgo, is being done with XpresSpa's XpresCheck subsidiary. Besides Newark, the program is operating at JFK International Airport, San Francisco International Airport, and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The program has two types of tests. One is a PCR test done on a pooled sample collected at the airport on arrival. The second is an at-home specimen collection kit that is mailed back three to five days after arrival into the U.S.

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XpresSpa up 7% on Omicron COVID variant detection airport program