The Federal Government has, Tuesday, developed a molecular test kit known as the SARS-COV-2 Isothermal Molecular Assay (SIMA) as part of its efforts to improve its testing capacity for COVID-19.
The Minister of State for Health, Olorunnimbe Mamora, announced this at the bi-weekly Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 briefing on Tuesday.
According to the minister, the test kit, which was developed by the Nigeria Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), can produce results in less than 40 minutes.
He said, “The Nigeria Institute of Medical Research has developed a molecular test for COVID-19 that can give results in less than 40 minutes.
“It is the SARS-COV-2 Isothermal Molecular Assay (SIMA) which can be performed by low skilled personnel with minimum training,” Mamora said.
While outlining that the kit is 10 times cheaper than Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and can be deployed for point of care detection and surveillance, Mamora said Nigeria is still struggling to ramp up COVID-19 testing mainly due to lack of adequate equipment and reagents needed to carry out the PCR test.
