Medical diagnostics company Abbott Laboratories will hire 1,200 workers at its new Westbrook plant to help ramp up production of its new rapid-result Covid-19 test.
The company made the announcement Thursday after the Food and Drug Administration approved production of the test, which will cost $5 and produce results within 15 minutes.
A company official says it will open more than 900 temporary jobs in Maine for the mass production effort, while creating another 300 permanent positions. She also says production has already started at the facility, one of two in the United States that is expected to produce 50 million tests a month. The other plant is in Illinois.
Updated 3:39 p.m. August 27, 2020.