Abbott Laboratories, a leading pharmaceutical firm, has recently launched a test kit for coronavirus to detect cases in five minutes. The firm has obtained the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Emergency Authorization for this test to be available in the healthcare sector as early as next week.
For less than 13 minutes, the portable laboratory equipment that is the size of a toaster can even say the negative ones. The innovation would be a public health game-changer since the kits commonly used take up to six hours for tests to be identified.
And now, media reports are emerging that there is a Pakistani scientist, Jameel Sheikh, behind this invention. Jameel, a microbiologist, who hails from Larkana, graduated from Karachi’s NED Engineering University before moving to the United States.
Larkana Born American Sindhi designed this #COVID testing device and Got approved by FDA USA. The device will produce results in 5 min Mr Jamil Shaikh Lives in San Diego. pic.twitter.com/qLWiXDQhLH
— Hamadullah Awan (@Awan_hamadullah) March 30, 2020
Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical giant has enhanced its production of the kits as it aims to deliver 50,000 devices per day to the US healthcare system. The kits will not only ramp-up the testing capacity of the world’s largest economy, but it will also save thousands of lives with a timely diagnosis.
It should be noted that the US is the new epicenter of the deadly virus where confirmed cases, as of Monday, are above 164,000 with death toll crossing 3,100.
