United Kingdom develops 10-minute coronavirus test with help from African innovation hub
- A specialised facility in Dakar, Senegal, is set to team up with a United Kingdom biotech firm to test the coronavirus in 10 minutes
- This would be achieved through the manufacturing of test kits which would be validated by a number of stakeholders
- The test kits are expected to be handheld devices and manufacturing would begin from June 2020
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The United Kingdom (UK) has teamed up with an innovations hub in Senegal to develop a 10-minute coronavirus test.
The $60 million prevention and research funding package is an attempt to get a faster way to diagnose the coronavirus.
With the help of a specialised facility in Dakar, Senegal, the UK government, through Mologic, a biotech firm is working with the Institut Pasteur de Dakar.
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A qz.com report shows the test kits would be manufactured at DiaTropix, the Dakar-based custom-built facility for innovative ways to deal with epidemics.
Information available shows that the test kits are expected to be handheld devices and would be manufactured in June 2020.
It is expected that a number of selected medical institutions would validate the potency of the test kits.
At the moment procedures such as throat swabs, transporting samples to laboratories with test kits and a wait for results that can last up to 24 hours are used to diagnose the coronavirus.
Meanwhile, the International Nidovirus Symposium, also known as Nido2020, which was intended to be the 2020 edition of a scientific meeting held every three years to share knowledge on coronavirus, has been postponed.
The meeting, which was planned to take place from May 10 to 14, 2020, in the Netherlands, was officially postponed to 2021.
Qz.com reports that the decision was announced on March 9, 2020, after the organizers noticed a hesitation in registration.
According to Marjolein Kikkert, a microbiologist at the Leiden University Medical Center, there was a need to take responsibility and protect lives as coronavirologists so that it is not spread further.
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Source: YEN.com.gh
