Daily Times

A team of Punjab University scientists headed by Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology’s Prof Dr Muhammad Idrees has developed a low-price diagnostic kit to test suspected Coronavirus patients and the cost of one test would be around 5 US dollars or Rs 800 only.

Talking to media, Prof Dr Muhammad Idrees, a renowned virologist and former vice chancellor of University of Hazara, said that development of the kit was not a big job for a scientist however now the government would be able to get diagnostic kits from its own department. He said that the laboratory where the test of Coronavirus suspect was being tested should match BSL 3 standard so that lab staff and others could not be affected and spread of virus could be controlled.

He said that on availability of some basic ingredients, the team could develop thousands of kits within a week for the government. In his message, PU VC Prof Niaz Ahmad said that PU CEMB would conduct tests of Coronavirus suspects free-of-cost so that relief could be given to the people at large. He said that this was the role of universities to resolve the problems being faced by the society and country and PU would play its role to cope with this menace in this critical time as well.

Moreover, Punjab University Vice Chancellor Prof Niaz Ahmad has instructed the relevant officials to make necessary arrangements for online classes of the students from the next week. He said that since the country was battling the menace of Coronavirus, we should not compromise on education of our graduates and develop alternative ways to deliver lectures to the students.