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Geneva (AFP)
Coronavirus tests that give results in 15-30 minutes will be rolled out in the United States and in dozens of poorer countries, as health authorities around the world try to control a disease that has now killed more than a million people.
US President Donald Trump announced that 150 million tests would be distributed in the United States, while the World Health Organization said 120 million more would be available to the developing world at $ 5 each, provided they are secure financing.
The testing push comes as the virus shows no signs of regressing, with the number of infections rising rapidly in Europe again and governments there cracking down on a bid to stem the rise.
Paris, London and Madrid have been forced to introduce controls to slow infections, with the Dutch authorities becoming the last to tighten limits on Monday, while the Czech Republic and Slovakia said they were preparing to declare a state of emergency. .
The WHO said its $ 600 million plan to roll out the rapid diagnostic kits in 133 countries in the next six months would allow low- and middle-income nations to bridge the testing gap with the rich world.
The kits are much faster, cheaper, and easier to administer than standard polymerase chain reaction (PCR) swab tests, but they are less sensitive and more likely to give false negatives.
“This will allow for the expansion of testing, particularly in hard-to-reach areas that do not have laboratory facilities or enough trained health workers to perform PCR testing,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a conference on virtual press.
For months, experts have been calling for widespread adoption of this low-cost technology so that people can test themselves several times a week.
Harvard epidemiologist Michael Mina said the testing campaign “is excellent and it’s a great start.”
But the amount distributed by the US government “is simply not enough” and production must be multiplied by ten or twenty, he added.
– ‘Whatever is needed’ –
The tests are part of a limited toolkit available to governments as they search for ways to turn the wheels of economies that have been crippled in recent months by lockdowns and other restrictions on people’s lives.
One million Madrileños are under partial blockade, with the city and the surrounding region at the center of Spain’s second wave.
The national government on Monday warned local authorities to take drastic measures if the region did not move decisively to curb the uncontrolled expansion.
“There is no doubt that (the central government) is willing to do whatever is necessary,” Justice Minister Juan Carlos Campo told Spanish public radio RNE.
– ‘We made peace with it’ –
Worldwide, the virus has infected more than 33 million people and killed more than a million, according to an AFP count compiled from official sources.
On Monday, the number of cases in India surpassed six million, with the country on track to overtake the United States in the coming weeks as the country with the most infections.
Locals in Delhi said that although they remained cautious, their fears had lessened since the pandemic began earlier this year.
Himanshu Kainthola, 61, who recovered from the virus last month, said his family’s concerns had been “substantially reduced.”
“We take the necessary precautions and invest in increasing our immunity instead of feeling anxious or fearful,” he said. “We have made peace with it.”
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© 2020 AFP
