Locally manufactured Covid-19 testing kits to have 90pc accuracy, claims Fawad

Science minister says the kits will considerably bring down the cost of coronavirus tests in the country

Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry on Monday claimed that locally manufactured coronavirus diagnostic kits would have 90 per cent accuracy which is about 20 per cent more than imported testing equipment.

In an interview with a private news outlet, Fawad said Pakistan has developed indigenous Covid-19 diagnostic kits that have been approved by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) for commercial use.

"Locally manufactured diagnostic kits would considerably bring down the cost of coronavirus tests in the country," said Fawad

The minister also expressed the hope that domestic ventilators would also be ready within the next few weeks as clinical trials of four machines have already entered their final phase.

"Once these trials are over, the commercial entities would be asked to start manufacturing the ventilators," he added.

Earlier on June 12, DRAP approved the first indigenously made testing kit for novel coronavirus, developed by the scientists at National University of Science and Technology (NUST) Attaur Rahman School of Applied Biosciences (ASAB).

The news was shared on Twitter by minister for science, where he congratulated the developing team.

“You people have made us proud… this will bring significant cost reduction of Covid-19 tests and will also save huge import bill,” he wrote on his official handle.

The testing kits are being developed in collaboration with Wuhan Institute of Virology China, DZIF Germany, Columbia University USA and Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) Rawalpindi.

These testing kits will cost one-fourth the current price for the kits used for detecting the Covid-19.