Sri Lanka to commence use of Covid-19 test that issues results in 20 minutes from next week

The Ministry of Health will commence the usage of the rapid antigen test kits from next week.

The test kits could reveal if a person has contracted the coronavirus or not within 20 minutes. It will further increase the screening capacity of Covid-19-infected persons in order to control the spread of the coronavirus.

The Health Ministry’s Deputy Director-General of Laboratory Services Dr Saman Rathnayake said that the test kits are currently under trial at the Health Ministry’s Laboratory Services.

He said the rapid antigen test kits help detect Covid infected patients much faster than a PCR test.

The quick results provided through the test will enable more test to be conducted and will also help contain the spread of the virus, he said.

The first consignment of rapid antigen test kits arrived in Sri Lanka on a special SriLankan Airlines flight on Wednesday (04).

The consignment consisting of 200,000 rapid antigen test kits was brought down from South Korea by the private local pharmaceutical company which is the agent to SD BioSensor and Abbott and Bio that have been validated by the World Health Organization (WHO) to manufacture antigen test kits.

Dr. Saman Ratnayake said the first consignment will be utilised to screen Board of Investment (BOI) and Export Development Board (EDB) workers.

The test kits will also be distributed among several private hospitals, such as Asiri Group, Nawaloka Hospitals, Hemas Hospitals, and the Red Cross.

He said the second consignment consisting of 800,000 antigen test kits is due to arrive in Sri Lanka by next Sunday. (NewsWire)

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