Taiwan’s Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Chuan-neng said Monday that the production of fast track diagnostic tests for the COVID-19 virus could go into production as early as July.
Speaking at a press conference, Lin held up a sample of the kit in question that looked very much like an average sized coffee cup.
Developed by Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) is is understood the new kit will be able to analyse samples and give effective results with an accuracy level of 90% within 60 minutes when up and running.
It is believed that clinical testing of already underway as Lin said such tests are set to be completed by the end of this month.
In June we will then see a period of trial production carried out in Taiwan.
The 600 gramme machine will be the smallest such device in production when finalised if compared to efforts overseas to develop similar high speed methods of detecting the COVID-19 virus.
Moving on to discuss the specifics of the prototype testing, the director-general of the Department of Industrial Technology under the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), Lo Ta-sheng then went on to add that a total of 10 of the testing units along with 10,000 reagents to be used with the test kits will be put through their paces in local hospitals.
In other COVID-19 related news, NHRI president Liang Kung-yee also said Monday that the prototype for another domestically developed test kit for COVID-19 has been designed to help confirm the virus in individuals already showing symptoms.
This second test kit could be effective in as little as 15 to 20 minutes when in use, although it is still several months away from mass production for various administrative reasons Liang said at the same press conference.
As of April 13th, Taiwan had 393 confirmed cases of the virus; one of the lowest in the world.
