Nigeria

Nigerian scientists develop, launch COVID-19 test kit

Thursday, July 09, 2020 at 12:45 PM by Onyirioha Nnamdi

- Nigeria is really pushing the limit in the battle against coronavirus

- The federal government has launched a COVID-19 test kit

- The kit, RNASwift, was designed and developed by Nigerian scientists

PAY ATTENTION: Click “See First” under the “Following” tab to see Legit.ng News on your Facebook News Feed!

The federal government on Thursday, July 9, launched a diagnostic kit, known as RNASwift, for the identification of coronavirus’ causal agent.

RNASwift, according to Professor Alex Akpa, the acting director-general of the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), was designed by Nigerian scientists, Daily Trust reports.

Akpa said that this welcome innovation will no doubt aid the testing capacity of health agents in Nigeria with respect to COVID-19.

Nigerian scientists develop, launch COVID-19 test kit
Source: Facebook

He said: “The diagnostic kit is a product of cutting-edge biotechnology, which involves the exploitation of molecular biology to design, develop and validate a cost-effective but yet very top-of-the-range kit for COVID-19 testing."

Read also

Kogi guber: Huge number of APC aspirants is due to my efforts, says Gov Bello

Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that Nigerians could be assured that the federal government would actively battle and defeat the deadly coronavirus.

This was due to the acquisition of new equipment that would enable the country to test for the disease.

Dr Osagie Ehanire, Nigeria's minister of health, made this known during the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the State House months back when Nigeria had not recorded any case of the deadly virus.

Going further, he disclosed that Nigeria has also set up three laboratories across the country to test suspected patients for the disease.

The laboratories were in Lagos, Abuja and Irrua in Edo state to handle such tests.

PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read the best news on Nigeria’s #1 news app

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and eight states across Nigeria have been listed by the World Health Organisation as states at high risk of a coronavirus outbreak.