Iran sends first batch of COVID-19 test kits to Germany

An Iranian biomedicine company has supplied a large batch of coronavirus test kits to Germany amid reported surge in the production of the diagnostic tool in the country.

A report by the IRIB News said that some 40,000 consignments of serological testing kits had been sent to Germany from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport earlier on Tuesday.

The test kits will be used to determine the rate of immunity against the disease in Germany, a country where early and widespread use of diagnostic methods has contained the number of fatalities caused by COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

The test kits have been supplied by Pishtaz Teb Zaman Company, a firm which has led efforts for mass production of COVID-19 diagnostics in Iran since the pandemic began to hit the country in late February.

The company began mass production for serological tests last month when Iranian authorities said they plan to expand the use of the tests to a larger population in the country.

Serological tests will show how much people, especially those in close contacts with confirmed cases of the new coronavirus, have developed immunity against the disease either after recovering from the illness or as a result of the so-called herd immunity.

Iran has managed to contain the rate of COVID-19 infection mainly relying on home-grown efforts for producing treatment and diagnostics as the country continues to suffer from a series of American sanctions that hampered its access to imports of medicine and vital medical equipment.

The Iranian health ministry said on Tuesday that the total number of people tested positive for COVID-19 had topped 99,970 of whom some 80,475 patients had recovered from the illness and 6,340 people had died.

SS