A Senegalese institute has created a $1 testing kit for COVID-19, news the institution released on Monday revealed.
According to the release, the Institut Pasteur de Dakar has successfully developed a kit designed to offer test results in about 10 minutes. More interestingly, the technology will only cost $1.
Institut Pasteur de Dakar collaborated on the project with U.K biotech firm Mologic.
The institute’s success is down to its vast experience as a center of science and research. The institution has in the past successfully developed vaccines, including medicine used in the treatment of ailments such as yellow fever.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says there are 70 vaccines in the works for COVID-19, four of the most promising are already being tested.
The billions being spent now could help return the economy back to normality. There is no guarantee that any of the vaccines will work.
Although the development of the kits is at its final stages and is deemed commercial-ready, the distribution won’t happen until at least June. The interim time will allow for more tests to ensure nothing that can affect its workability goes unnoticed.
Reports suggest that the kit allows individuals at home to carry out COVID-19 testing and get pretty accurate results within minutes. Samples will involve the use of saliva or blood. The kit works much like the common pregnancy test kit. Individuals will have to look out for a bloodline to tell whether the sample contains COVID-19 antibodies or not.
The news comes weeks after Senegalese engineers outlined 3D-technology that helps to print ventilators that sell for just $60. Importing a ventilator costs $16,000, making the tech much cheaper. The use of innovative technology has increased two-fold as developers look to aid efforts to cut further infections of the virus.
