A leading news website reported that the Minister for Science and Technology, Fawad Chaudhry, has confirmed that Pakistan has developed its COVID-19 diagnostic kits. Earlier, the kits were being bought from China to test people for the virus.
Now that the Pakistani scientists have developed kits for the test, the cost of testing will dramatically decrease, which also means more people will be tested. As of now, Pakistan has reported 144,478 coronavirus cases, and 2,729 death. (Source/ Dawn)
The kit that was developed by the National University of Science and Technology has 90% accuracy. It can be used for commercial purposes as it is approved by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP).
As per the minister, the kit is, in fact, 20% better than the ones being imported earlier.
“We were mostly importing COVID-19 test kits from China. Now our scientists have developed our polymerase chain reaction equipment. It is a domestic kit and will help us reduce our import bill,” he said.
“Likewise, it will bring down the cost of COVID-19 tests to one-third of what it is.”
The news of Pakistanis trying to build cheap ventilators was also making rounds on social media. Minister confirmed that domestic ventilators would even begin to roll out within the next few weeks as clinical trials of four machines have entered their final phase.
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“Once these trials are over, we will ask commercial entities to start manufacturing these ventilators. In most of the countries, including the United States, motor companies are manufacturing ventilators. Therefore, we are also bringing motor companies into it. I hope we will be able to produce more than 100 ventilators in the first three months,” he said.
“We are at the peak right now,” he said. “However, it is hard to determine it in terms of numbers or duration since this virus spreads exponentially. Once it gets going, stopping it becomes quite difficult.”
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“That is usually the time this virus takes to reach the peak,” he said. “It will take about the same duration of two to three months to slow down the infection rate.”
About the lockdown, the minister said, “You cannot lock down the whole country for an indefinite period. It is a country of 220 million people. A complete lockdown will trigger shortages of food and other necessary items, making life difficult for many people in a country like Pakistan.”
We surely understand that locking up an underdeveloped country will have its consequences. Have something to add? Let us know in the comment section below.
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