Testing deal aids poorer nations
WHO, partners to provide 120 million COVID-19 antigen tests
GENEVA — The World Health Organization announced Monday that it and leading partners have agreed to a plan to roll out 120 million rapid-diagnostic tests for the coronavirus to help lower- and middle-income countries make up ground in a testing gap with richer countries, even if it’s not fully funded yet.
The antigen-based rapid diagnostic tests, for which the WHO issued an emergency-use listing last week, cost $5 apiece. The program initially requires $600 million and is to get started as early as next month to provide better access to areas where it’s harder to reach with PCR tests, which are used often in many wealthier nations.
The rapid tests look for antigens, or proteins found on the surface of the virus. They are generally considered less accurate but much faster than higher-grade genetic tests, known as PCR tests. Those tests require processing with specialty lab equipment and chemicals. Typically that turnaround takes several days to deliver results to patients.
WHO Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus hailed the program as “good news” in the fight against COVID-19.
“These tests provide reliable results in approximately 15 to 30 minutes rather than hours or days, at a lower price with less sophisticated equipment,” he said. “This will enable the expansion of testing, particularly in hard-to-reach areas that do not have lab facilities or enough trained health workers to carry out PCR tests.”
“We have an agreement, we have seed funding and now we need the full amount of funds to buy these tests,” he said, without specifying.
Dr. Catharina Boehme, chief executive of a nonprofit group called the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, said the rollout will be in 20 countries in Africa and will rely on the support of groups including the Clinton Health Access Initiative. She said the diagnostic tests will be provided by SD Biosensor and Abbott.
Peter Sands, the executive director of the Global Fund, a partnership that works to end epidemics, said it will make an initial $50 million available from its COVID-19 response mechanism. He said the deployment of the quality antigen rapid-diagnostic tests will be a “significant step” to help contain and combat the coronavirus.
In other developments:
■ South Korea’s new coronavirus tally has come below 50 for the first time in about 50 days amid a downward trend in new infections. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said Tuesday the 38 cases added in the last 24 hours took the country’s total to 23,699 with 407 deaths.
■ Quebec Premier Francois Legault said the two biggest cities in the Canadian province are returning to the highest COVID-19 alert level. Montreal and Quebec City are included in the “red zone” lockdown. The measures will last from Oct. 1 to Oct. 28. Meanwhile, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said his government was looking at all options to combat an alarming surge in cases after Ontario reported a record 700 new cases on Monday.
■ Mexico upped its “estimated” COVID-19 deaths to 89,612 on Monday, and boosted estimates of its total number of cases to 870,699, almost 137,000 more than it previously recognized.
India’s confirmed coronavirus tally reached 6 million on Monday, keeping the country second to the United States in number of reported cases.the Health Ministry reported 82,170 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, driving the overall total to 6,074,703. At least 1,039 deaths were recorded in the same period, taking total fatalities up to 95,542.
■ More Italian regions are mulling outside mask mandates amid a steady increase in infections and indications that testing capacity can’t keep up with the demand. Italy added 1,494 coronavirus infections and 16 deaths to its confirmed COVID toll Monday, in line with its daily increase for the past few weeks.