Coronavirus: FDA grants license for new test kits and equipment as race for cure heats up

Coronavirus: FDA grants license for new test kits and equipment as race for cure heats up

- Tests for the coronavirus in the United States of America would undergo expansion following the approval of test kits by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

- Currently, the USA lags behind with regard to tests conducted relative to its population

- One of the approved tests, Cepheid’s COVID-19, has been dedicated to frontline tests by hospitals and clinics

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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the United States of America (USA) has initiated moves to ensure that tests for the coronavirus could be expanded all over the country.

The FDA is, therefore, granting a special ‘emergency use authorization’ for tests and equipment.

YEN.com.gh understands that the USA lags behind several countries around the world with regard to tests conducted relative to its population size.

READ ALSO: World leaders raise concerns about misinformation about coronavirus on WhatsApp

One of the various tests approved, Cepheid’s COVID-19 test is capable of expanding the availability of frontline tests in hospitals and clinics, techcrunch.com reports.

The test is also capable of being run with or without the use of a nasal swab, which is key because supplies of nasal swabs are taxed globally in light of the need for testing.

However, testing has gradually increased in the USA, mainly because of efforts at expanding availability in the hardest-hit areas such as New York state.

There is nonetheless an urgent need for more tests as health professionals usually focus on the most severe cases, which usually require contact tracing or proof of elevated risk.

Meanwhile, there is optimism that something good is about to come from Senegal, in relation to coronavirus which is threatening the world and currently recognised as a pandemic.

This is because innovators from the African country are now assisting the United Kingdom with the creation of the fastest testing kits that could detect the virus in an individual within 10 minutes.

The world is held in surprise at the way the virus spreads with cases now above 120,000.

Mologic, a British biotech firm, is partnering with the Institut Pasteur de Dakar, for the manufacturing of the testing devices which will be done at DiaTropix, which Quartz described as "a new custom-built facility for epidemics-related innovation, in Dakar, Senegal."

READ ALSO: Coronavirus meeting that happens every 3 years canceled because of coronavirus

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